According to Chris Carter, the value of dinosaur fossils is comparable to that of blue-chip artwork and is even surpassing that of many Old Masters paintings
A collection of Chinese artwork, nine opulent London apartments, and the fossilized bones of a stegosaurus and an adult and juvenile allosaurus were all seized last week under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The forfeiture is connected to an ongoing probe into claims that Singaporean businessman Su Binghai laundered money. According to David Brown in The Times, we shouldn't be surprised that dinosaur fossils are listed among the confiscated assets along with real estate and artwork. The mega-rich have recently made dinosaur skeletons and bones their preferred status item, with the cost of ancient fossilized remains surpassing that of many Old Masters paintings. The fossils were sold at auction with Christies in London last December for a total of 12.4 million, including the buyer's premium.
According to Miety Heiden, head of private sales at Phillips, there is "something powerful about the visual dialogue between an awe-inspiring 66-million-year-old lot and seminal works from the modern and contemporary eras." The centerpiece of the auction house's "Out of This World" sale in New York on November 19 is a complete skeleton of a young Triceratops. The triceratops, dubbed "Cera," are anticipated to fetch between £2.5 and £3.5 million. Christian D. Link, a Swiss expert who has collaborated with Phillips, tells The Times that "collectors today want to spice things up." "They resemble the Renaissance collectors who enjoyed filling their chambers of wonders with incredible objects. Link claims that this explains why prices have increased. A 67-million-year-old T in 2020. Before billionaire investor Ken Griffin paid £44.6 million for a 150 million-year-old stegosaurus known as "Apex" in July 2024, a rex known as "Stan" sold for a record-breaking £31.8 million.
Purchasing dinosaur fossils is problematic.
The American Museum of Natural History currently has Apex on display. However, the issue of scientific access is not always resolved by loans. Professor Richard Butler informs James Ashworth on the Natural History Museum blog that "access to dinosaurs on loan could be taken away at any point, meaning it would be impossible to verify any conclusions made using them." Therefore, some paleontologists would rather ignore them.
There are numerous arguments in favor of and against the commercial sale of fossils, and not all paleontologists support a complete prohibition. However, private ownership can also make it difficult for scientists to determine the quantity of a specific type of fossil, such as that of a particular creature, which can make tracking "variation" challenging. For example, the skeleton of the 68 million-year-old caenagnathid dinosaur "Spike" has a mark that indicates it was feathered. On December 11, it will go up for sale at Christies in London, where it is anticipated to bring in between three and five million dollars.
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