WORLD
At Sotheby`s in Paris, dinosaurs are recipe
Baku, October 6 (AZERTAC). The skeletons of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, which attracted thousands of spectators last week at Sotheby`s in Paris, all have been sold at auction Tuesday, proof of success achieved such sales in recent years.
This first sale entirely devoted to the “natural history” by Sotheby`s in France has been the most important financially, with a total of nearly $ 2.8 million, according to the auction house of British origin.
Masterpiece and arguably the most spectacular exhibit, a skeleton of Allosaurus (“strange lizard” in Greek) estimated around 800,000 euros has sold 1.3 million euros.
A good price, but far from the record reached in 1997 by Sotheby`s with the sale of a Tyrannosaurus full 13 m long, for $ 8.4 million (more than 6 million Euros).
Of 10.12 meters long and 70% complete, the Allosaurus found on private land in the United States was bought by a European collector who wishes to remain anonymous. This fearsome predator carnivore that lived in the Jurassic period, here about 150 to 135 million years, had never been offered in an auction before.
Although younger than Allosaurus, a woolly rhinoceros skeleton has been sold almost 97,000 euros to a French collector in the room. He announced his intention to donate to the Institute of Human Paleontology (HPI), a foundation created in 1910 in Paris by Prince Albert 1er de Monaco.
What researchers reconcile with such sales, which have proliferated in recent years, prompting some grumbling experts fearing they escape some specimens of interest.
The other star of the sale, the plesiosaur, marine dinosaur that inspired the monster of Loch Ness in the popular imagination, has been awarded to more than 456,000 euros, well above its estimate, as a lazy giant sold 120,000 Euros.
A fossilized ammonite in its pearly shell was removed to 72,000 Euros, three times its original estimate.
Besides these rare pieces, usually reserved for their price and size, institutions or some rich collectors, enthusiasts less fortunate could also afford a few thousand Euros fossils of crabs and trilobites, ancient at least 250 million years.