A veritable “bone rush”. Many eyes were on “Vulcan” this Saturday, a specimen of Apatosaurus, formerly known as Brontosaurus, with an impressive silhouette measuring 20.50 meters in length. The auction, held at the Château de Dampierre-en-Yvelines estate under the aegis of Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa, lived up to its promise. Estimated at between 4 and 6 million euros, the largest dinosaur ever sold in the world fetched over 6 million euros, including fees.

Comparisons abound. Christie’s initiated the sale of the first skeleton in France in 2008. An American patron purchased Cliff for 592,000 euros. Two years later, a specimen fetched 1.3 million at Sotheby’s. In 2018, Aguttes created a stir with a piece that fetched 2 million. Binoche Giquello also broke the 3 million mark in 2020. ” In 2021, I would have liked to acquire Big John (a triceratops NDLR)Franky Mulliez, owner of the Domaine de Dampierre, told us a few days ago. I even took out a bank loan. I had set myself a limit of 3 million euros. Unfortunately, the piece went for twice that “. 6.6 million exactly, including costs. Out of reach, then, for the founder of “Kiloutou”, who owns a magnificent collection of objects focusing on the natural sciences and fine arts.

Record sales

“Owning a dinosaur means becoming a master of time, touching both the origins and the mysteries of the earth’s settlement. “says auctioneer Olivier Collin du Bocage. ” ” There’s a desire to make a dream come true: to go from the plastic dinosaur to the real thing. “adds expert Eric Mickeler. Never mind the soaring prices. In 2020, the Abu Dhabi Museum paid no less than 27.1 million euros for a T Rex skeleton. Last July, $44.6 million was paid for an Apex stegosaurus. A record! “ Is it expensive? Yes, but the prices are not those of contemporary art. You can also buy teeth and claws at fairs – particularly in the USA – for reasonable sums. “says Olivier Collin du Bocage.

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” It’s not a Picasso, and it’s a valuable product “says Eric Mickeler. Vulcan, in particular, has retained over 80% of its original bone mass. A far cry from the 50% usually recorded when such an animal is discovered. Far, for example, from its alter ego in New York’s Museum of Natural History, whose skeleton comes from four different species. And then there’s its almost unreal age, approaching 150 million years. Not to mention its skull, which is almost intact. ” This is a major scientific breakthrough, observes Eric Mickeler. This discovery tells us a great deal about his physical and intellectual capacities. “. It’s a delightful sensation to imagine this 25-tonne mass striding across the vast expanses of yesteryear…

Sacrificed lives

For the time being, it still hangs in front of the château, where it has been on display for several months. ” Its presentation boosted our visitor numbers, which doubled.notes Pascal Thévard, general manager of the site. We’ve been meeting passionate people since Jurassic Park who passed the virus on to their children “. Will the new owner share it with another institution, almost certain to draw crowds with such a headliner? This will be the case, as he intends to entrust it to a museum. “ He’ll be a kingmaker “warned Eric Mickeler, who hasn’t missed a thing of Vulcan’s adventures.

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It’s all about excess. Didn’t his extraction last three years in the heart of the “Morrison” geological formation, which covers an area of 1.5 million square kilometers in Colorado and Wyoming? It’s a territory where many adventurers in search of rare specimens are busy… and not often rewarded for their efforts.

” These are people who go away from home from April 15 to October 15 to live in mobile homes, enduring precarious conditions on the great prairies of Wyoming, says Eric Mickeler, curator of the Prague Dinosaur Museum and former consultant to Sotheby’s and Christie’s. They move dirt endlessly, flat on their backs. They buy land, concessions, get trucks and cranes, build access ramps… You practically have to be in public works to carry out these missions. They sacrifice everything out of passion, sometimes without achieving the slightest result after several years in the field. Their wives follow them at first, before running off in a hurry. “.

His hat’s off to the private collectors who don’t hesitate to spend fortunes to show these real treasures to the general public. “ I’m always grateful to patrons of the arts who commit themselves to this field, unlike the public authorities who let this sector go to the dogs”.he concludes.