Revealing the Identity of the Buyer of the Most Expensive Dinosaur Skeleton
It has been revealed that the stegosaurus skeleton sold on Wednesday for a record price of $44.6 million at an auction in New York was acquired by influential American billionaire Ken Griffin, who plans to lend it to an American institution for display.
The “Wall Street Journal” disclosed this information, confirmed to the “Agence France-Presse” by a source close to the sale.
Ken Griffin, chairman of the hedge fund “Citadel” and a major donor to the Republican Party, had previously bought in November 2021 for $43 million a rare original copy of the U.S. Constitution, which he lent for free to a state museum in Arkansas.
The auction house “Sotheby’s,” which organized the sale on Wednesday in New York, stated that the buyer “intends to explore the possibility of lending the specimen (the dinosaur) to an American institution.”
The “Wall Street Journal” quoted Griffin as saying that “Apex,” the name given to the dinosaur, “was born in America and will remain in America.”
According to “Forbes” magazine, Ken Griffin’s fortune is estimated at about $37.8 billion. A graduate of the prestigious private Harvard University near Boston, he is one of its largest donors, having donated $350 million in 2023. In 2017, he donated $16.5 million to the “Field Museum” in Chicago to enable it to display another dinosaur specimen, the tyrannosaurus rex “Sue.”
“Apex,” dating back 150 million years, is considered “one of the most complete skeletons discovered to date,” according to the auction house. The skeleton, which stands 3.3 meters tall, comprises 254 fossilized bones out of a total of 319.
The previous record was $31.8 million for the sale of a tyrannosaurus rex named “Stan” in New York in 2020.
The skeleton of “Apex” was discovered in May 2022 on property owned by renowned paleontologist Jason Cooper. “Sotheby’s” claims to have worked with him from the start to organize this auction, ensuring “transparency,” according to the company.
These auctions have multiplied in recent years, causing controversy and frustration among paleontologists who believe that selling these specimens reduces the chances of them being displayed in museums and available for scientific research.
Stegosaurus skeletons are displayed worldwide, but “Apex” is 30% larger than “Sophie,” the most complete skeleton on public display at the Natural History Museum in London.
