• For full details of graphics available/in preparation, see Menu -> Planners
Graphic shows Big John Triceratops and record selling T. rex Stan.
GN41765NL

BUSINESS

’s Werelds grootste triceratops onder de hamer

By Duncan Mil

September 2, 2021 - October 21, 2021 - Big John, the largest known Triceratops skeleton, will go under the hammer at Drouot auction house in Paris in October. After the dinosaur’s discovery in 2015 in the United States, it is now being assembled in an exhibition gallery in the French capital before public display on September 16.

Sixty-six million-year-old Big John roamed the lands of modern-day South Dakota. His eight-metre long skeleton is more than 60 per cent complete and includes a near-complete skull, which measures 2.62 metres in length and two metres wide. Palaeontologists unearthed the first piece of bone in 2014.

The Drouot auction house estimates Big John’s skeleton could fetch between €1.2 million and €1.5 million.

“I imagine there are about 10 buyers worldwide for this kind of piece,” said Alexandre Giquello, the auctioneer at Drouot.

“Usually buyers manifest a bit later, shortly before the auction, but here we have already noted a lot of interest,” he said.

In October 2020, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex specimen named Stan became the world’s most expensive dinosaur when it was auctioned by Christie’s for a jaw-dropping $31.85 million. Stan took the record from Sue, another T. rex fossil which was auctioned in October 1997 by Sotheby’s, for $8.36 million -- nearly $13.5 million today, given the inflation rate.

Big John’s showing in Paris will only last until it is sold on October 21, at Hôtel Drouot.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 21/10/2021; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
Advertisement