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Driving the news: After chilling in a Wyoming museum for decades, a triceratops skeleton nicknamed “Trey” is going up for auction later this month. Estimates have the sales price pegged between US$4.5 and $5.5 million, but Trey could blow past these expectations.
The auction arrives at a boom time for dinosaur bone sales. Big spenders now regularly bid orders of magnitude more than pre-auction valuations to be fossil owners — a privilege that has traditionally belonged to museums and universities.
Why it matters: The boom reflects a wider trend where many new-money billionaires (over 340 were minted just last year) have traded traditional alternative asset classes like fine art for areas that speak to their personal interests, including things they loved in their youth — be it sports, Pokémon, or dinosaurs. Simply put, T. rex bones are cooler than Rembrandts for these nouveau riche collectors.
When asked about his record $44.6 million purchase of a stegosaurus skeleton in 2024, Citadel founder Ken Griffin told Bloomberg, “I’ve always loved dinosaurs.”
Yes, but: In the case of fossils, there’s concern that private interest is hindering (potentially vital) research. While many buyers end up displaying their prizes in museums, the kind of guarantees paleontologists need to conduct research don’t exist without public ownership.
Zoom out: Public institutions can’t keep up with the private market. According to research released last year, just 11% of commercially collected bones are going to public trusts, and commercial fossil hunters are excavating fossils at twice the rate of museums.—QH