Gus Rex, the Tyrannosaurus rex sold by Sotheby’s for $50.1 million, sets a new world record for a fossil

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Lo scheletro di Gus

ANSA / ufficio stampa Sotheby's

“It is not wrong to recognise the value of the work and investment required to recover and prepare these large fossils,” comments palaeontologist Simone Maganuco, a collaborator at the Milan Natural History Museum “but the risk is that they will be taken away from scholarly study and public access. Perhaps if the prices were lower, there might be many more museums among the potential buyers.”

“Today’s auction could result in a major scientific loss: we hope the buyer will donate the fossil to a public institution”, says palaeontologist Filippo Bertozzo, who, having worked at the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels, is about to move to the University of Lisbon.

Il cranio

ANSA / ufficio stampa Sotheby's

Unique specimens such as Gus, the researcher points out, “can reveal a vast amount of scientific data”, but “if they are kept within the four walls of the home” of a wealthy private collector, they lose their value, given that “specialist scientific journals do not accept studies conducted on specimens that are not held in a public institution”.

Furthermore, if the exhibition were not held in a museum, it would mean missing out on the opportunity to introduce the general public to science and the study of the natural world.

Gus’s case, however, is not an isolated one.

The five most expensive dinosaurs ever sold at auction all date from the last six years. Here are the top three:

1) Gus Rex, over 50 million dollars;
2) Apex, the stegosaurus sold by Sotheby’s in 2024 for 44.6 million dollars.
3) Stan, a T. rex sold by Christie’s for $31.8 million in 2020.