T. rex skeleton 'Gus' fetches $50.1 million at New York auction

A nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, dubbed "Gus," was sold for $50.1 million (about €44 million) at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Tuesday. The sale, which concluded after a ten-minute bidding contest among seven participants, was made by an anonymous buyer and established a new benchmark for dinosaur fossils at auction.

The specimen, discovered in 2021 on a South Dakota cattle ranch owned by the late Gary "Gus" Licking, measures about 38 feet (11.6 meters) in length and dates to roughly 67 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. Sotheby's vice chairman and global head of science and natural history, Cassandra Hatton, said the fossil stands out for its size, completeness, preservation and the meticulous work required for its excavation and preparation.

The previous record was held by a Stegosaurus skeleton that sold for $44.6 million at the same auction house in 2024. While the high price underscores a growing market for prehistoric specimens, some scientists have expressed concern about such fossils ending up in private collections.