T-Rex skeleton to be auctioned off in Switzerland

The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur is set to make its way to an auction house in Switzerland on April 18th.  This is the first time such an item has been up for grabs in Europe and only the third time it has happened worldwide.

The Zurich-based auction house Koller believe that the 67-million-year old skeleton, which has been called Trinity, could fetch between $5.4M-$8.6 million.

Experts have said that Trinity, who is 3.9 meters tall and 11.6 meters wide, has been very well preserved.

Trinity was put together using three specimens excavated from 2008 to 2013 in the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in the US states of Montana and Wyoming.  In this instance, only 50% of the bones are original.  The auction catalog wrote that this represents good value.

“The Zurich auction is therefore an exceptional opportunity to acquire such a fossil of the highest quality,” said the auction house. 

By law, skeletal remains of dinosaurs can only be sold if they were discovered on private property, which is the case for Trinity.   The auction house confirmed Trinity was discovered by a private resident and shipped over to the auction house in nine large crates.

In 2020, a T-Rex skeleton nicknamed ‘Stan’ was sold for $31.8 million in New York.  Stan defeated the previous record holder, which was a specimen called Sue, who was sold by Sotheby’s to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in October 1997 for a fee of $8.4 million.