A Triceratops skeleton, a fixture at a Wyoming museum for decades, is heading to auction – a rare occurrence for a dinosaur previously held in a public institution, as the market for prehistoric giants reaches record highs.
The fossil, nicknamed “Trey,” will be offered for bidding between March 17 and March 31 on Joopiter, an online auction platform founded by Grammy-winning artist and producer Pharrell Williams. It carries a preliminary estimate of $4.5 million to $5.5 million.
Discovered near Lusk, Wyoming, in 1993 by Lee Campbell and the late Allen Graffham, a commercial paleontologist known for numerous significant finds, Trey dates back over 66 million years to the Late Cretaceous period.
The herbivore, measuring 5.3 meters (17 feet) in length, was first displayed during the 1995 grand opening of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, remaining on loan there until 2023.
Having recently been sold in a private transaction, the specimen is now in Singapore, where it is available for private viewings through the end of March, according to Joopiter. The increasing interest in dinosaur fossils as investments reflects a broader shift in collecting, moving away from traditional assets like Old Master paintings.
Paleontologist Andre LuJan, who collaborated with Joopiter on preparing the fossil for auction, noted that “Trey has this cultural aspect that many fossils being auctioned today simply don’t have.” He added, “This one is connected with people and has undoubtedly inspired young children to pursue a career in paleontology.”
Dinosaur fossils, once primarily the domain of museums and universities, are becoming increasingly popular investment vehicles. In 2024, the remains of a Stegosaurus nicknamed “Apex” sold for $44.6 million at auction, shattering the previous record of $31.8 million paid in 2020 for “Stan,” a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. A rare skeleton of a young dinosaur also significantly exceeded its preliminary estimate of $4 million to $6 million in July, fetching over $30 million at a Sotheby’s auction, including premiums and costs.
Joopiter’s Global Head of Sales, Caitlin Donovan, indicated that the rising interest reflects a move toward objects with “cultural resonance.” LuJan pointed out that “dinosaurs have always captivated our imagination… and people are now starting to witness the value in investing in them as assets.”
However, the booming market is raising concerns among some paleontologists that important specimens may disappear into private collections, depriving scientists of valuable research opportunities. “Public museums are being completely priced out of an exploding market,” stated Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalester College in Minnesota.
“If a fossil goes into a private collection without guaranteed access forever, that data is essentially lost to science,” Curry Rogers added, noting she is not involved in the sale.
LuJan emphasized that Trey has always been privately owned and will ultimately end up in a museum, similar to Apex, which is now displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York after its buyer signed a long-term loan agreement allowing scientists to study it.
“As we’ve had this paradigm shift about what it means for society to own dinosaurs, people are naturally gravitating toward these benevolent situations where they are loaned to museums long-term or end up being donated to a new museum that is being born,” LuJan asserted.
___________________________________
This story was translated from English by an AP editor with assistance from generative artificial intelligence.
