A 22-meter-long apatosaurus skeleton, a herbivorous dinosaur, recently set an auction record by selling for six million euros ($6.4 million), the highest price ever fetched by a dinosaur skeleton.
Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa auction houses facilitated the sale. An anonymous collector purchased the rare fossil for 4.7 million euros, with fees bringing the total to six million euros.
Found in Wyoming, USA, this 150-year-old fossil retains 75 to 80 per cent of its original bones. The purchaser has agreed to loan the skeleton to a museum, ensuring it remains accessible.
Nicknamed “Vulcain,” the apatosaurus was unearthed between 2019 and 2021 and underwent two years of restoration at France’s Paleomoove Laboratory in Luberon. Initially weighing around 20 tonnes, the skeleton was displayed at the Dampierre-en-Yvelines chateau, 50 kilometres southwest of Paris.
It includes 300 bones and had an initial estimate of between three and five million euros. As part of the sale, the new owner has allowed palaeontologists to study the skeleton.
This significant sale, conducted under legal excavation permits from the U.S., represents a milestone in palaeontology and fossil auctions.
