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A $32 million Tyrannosaurus rex skeletal exhibit that auctioned at Christie’s in 2020 will likely end up being the centerpiece of a new gallery in Abu Dhabi slated to be completed in 2025.
The 67-million-year-old skeleton is nicknamed “Stan,” and it set a record-shattering price for a fossil when a confidential bidder on the phone with a Christie’s London specialist purchased it for a hammer price of $27.5 million. With fees, its final cost increased to $32 million, making it much more costly than many works by contemporary artists that head to public auction. The sale coincided with a surge in the trafficking of ancient fossils as well as, with it, issues from scientists about raised demand amongst exclusive purchasers hunting for all-natural trophies.
The sale of “Stan” exceeded the previous record for a dinosaur fossil, which was produced in 1997 by the $8.4 million sale of “Sue” to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. At the time of the sale of “Stan,” mystery bordered the fate of the prized fossil; it was vague whether it went to a private buyer or an institution. Some scholars stressed that the commonly examined artifact would become inaccessible to researchers if it was most likely sold to a private enthusiast.
“Stan” only appeared for sale after a judge ordered it to be sold in 2018 to settle a legal row between two proprietors of the excavation company that uncovered it in North Dakota. Afterward, Christie’s eyed private collection agencies with ties to nature galleries in the United States as prospective customers.
The fossil was exported from New York to the U.A.E. in May 2021, according to United States Trade reports reviewed by National Geographic. Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism said in a statement on Wednesday that “Stan” will be housed in the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, a brand-new 377,000-square-foot establishment that is undertaking construction on Saadiyat Island. Also included in that museum’s collection is a 7-billion-year-old meteorite recovered in Australia.
The museum, which does not yet have a name, will likely sign up with a network of institutions situated in the Saadiyat Cultural District, among them the Louvre Abu Dhabi as well as the planned Zayed National Museum and also Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. The advancement becomes part of the city government’s approach to expanding the city’s cultural market. HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and also Tourism, claimed in a statement the firm’s objective is “to make Abu Dhabi the place for research, collaboration and discovery.”
H/T Robb Report
