In Paris on Tuesday an entire Allosaurus skeleton appeared at auction for the first time, and the Jurassic giant did not disappoint, selling for €1,296,750 ($1,787,040) — handily beating its high estimate of €1 million — to an anonymous European individual bidding by telephone. Although the dinosaur and other top lots out-performed expectations, the sale did not manage to meet its overall estimate of €3.6-4.6 million ($5-6.4 million), netting only €2,791,325 ($3,826,000).
Sotheby’s France paleontology expert Eric Mickeler had previously told ARTINFO that at the estimated price the dinosaur would be a very good deal. In 1997, Sotheby’s sold "Sue," a brilliantly publicized Tyrannosaurus Rex, to Chicago’s Field Museum for $8.4 million. Discovered in Wyoming, the Allosaurus, most likely a female, had been carefully arranged for Sotheby’s in a lifelike running position, its huge mouth gaping as if ready to attack. Over 30 feet long, the dinosaur is between 135 and 153 million years old. The purchaser will have the right to give it a name.
After the hammer fell, the room was silent. "In the past, people clapped after this kind of sale," commented the auctioneer, and the audience burst into applause. The second-biggest lot, a Plesiosaurus from England, also beat its high estimate of €370,000 when it fetched €456,750 ($626,000), and a woolly rhinoceros from Russia edged past its estimate of €70-90,000, selling for €96,750 ($132,600). The purchaser, Gérard Raynaud, is a natural history collector who works in real estate, but he plans to donate the ancient mammal to Paris’s Human Paleontology Institute.
Amélie Dialet, a paleo-anthropologist at the Institute, was thrilled by the gift, telling ARTINFO France that "when you place prehistoric humans in their environment, animals are a wonderful way to reconstruct that environment." Mr. Raynaud described the highlight of his 500-piece collection to ARTINFO France: "The best one is a sauropod foot that is almost four feet long and has not yet been described. I’m going to try to have it named after my children."
Despite the excellent performance of the animals in the auction, the minerals had less success and prevented the sale total from achieving its estimate. A citrine and a tourmaline that had each been estimated at €320-350,000 did not find buyers, a Sotheby's spokesperson told ARTINFO, adding that the market for geological treasures is primarily an American one and that the current strength of the euro may have discouraged collectors with dollars to spend.
While some collectors are attracted by the rare prehistoric objects themselves or the promise of giving them names, others go to the sales with a different aim. A pre-Columbian archaeology expert attending the auction on behalf of a client told ARTINFO France that displaying prehistoric objects in a nonprofit or business setting is an excellent communication strategy. "With these skeletons, you stun your clients, who are immediately subjugated by the beast. Buying a dinosaur is also a way of selling yourself."
Author: Juliette Soulez | Source: ArtInfo [October 07, 2010]