Stegosaurus sells for nearly $45 million at Sotheby’s, highest price for dinosaur fossil

Sotheby’s has the skeleton of a stegosaurus named Apexbilled as “the best Stegosaurus ever to hit the market,” for nearly $45 million, a record.

The sale price far surpasses the $4 million to $6 million estimate that Sotheby’s had assigned to the lot. Described as a mounted Stegosaurus skeleton, the exact sale price was $44.6 million, surpassing previous sales records for dinosaur fossils.

Sotheby’s, which said the auction closed Wednesday morning, did not disclose the identity of the buyer.

“’Apex’ lived up to its name today, inspiring bidders around the world to become the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, said in a statement after the auction.

“This sale has been years in the making and we have worked closely with Jason Cooper every step of the way, from the moment of discovery in Dinosaur, Colorado, to the sale in New York,” she added, referring to the paleontologist who discovered the specimen.

The iconic skeleton is approximately 161 million years old, according to Sotheby’s, and stands 11 feet tall and nearly 27 feet long from nose to tail. According to the auction house’s listing, Apex is “mounted in an aggressive attack pose on a custom-made steel frame.”

The discovery was made between 2022 and 2023 on private land in Moffat County, Colorado, near the town of Dinosaur.

The fossil of one of the world’s most recognizable dinosaurs is nearly completely intact, Sotheby’s said. The fossil also shows signs of arthritis, suggesting Apex lived a long life.

Apex isn’t the first dinosaur to sell at auction. In 1997, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil sold for $8.4 million, and in 2020, another T. rex skeleton fetched $32 million. Two years later, in 2022, Sothebys sold a Gorgosaurus skeleton for more than $6 million.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report