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Adds accuracy to the sale price and age of the skeleton.
The largest dinosaur skeleton ever auctioned in France, measuring 22 meters in length, sold on Saturday for 4.7 million euros – six million after expenses, or about $6.3 million, auction houses told AFP .
The anonymous buyer, a collector, who expressed his intention to donate this skeleton of an Apatosaurus, a giant herbivore, to the museum, indicated the houses of Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa.
“This auction is one of the largest auctions of dinosaur skeletons in France,” said Olivier Collin du Bocage.
“We are pleased that the buyer intends to lend it to the institution,” he added.
Comprised of 75-80% original bones and estimated to be around 150 million years old, this impressive specimen is the largest dinosaur ever to be auctioned in the country.
The skeleton of the herbivorous giant, which weighed about twenty tons during life and probably reached the age of 45, was exhibited before being sold at the Dampierre castle in Yvelines, about 50 km southwest of Paris, where kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV stayed. and Louis XV.
The remains of this apatosaurus, nicknamed Vulcain, were discovered in 2018 in Wyoming, US, where the law allows people to obtain concessions in hopes of unearthing prehistoric bones.
The excavations took place between 2019 and 2021 and were financed by a French investor. The fossil, consisting of 300 bones, was later sent to France for treatment.
Restoration work was carried out over two years by the Paleomoove Laboratory company in southeastern France.
The purchase agreement stipulates that the future owner must give paleontologists access to the dinosaur for study.
Before the sale, its value was estimated at three to five million euros.
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