Called “Trinity,” the nearly 12-foot-tall, 35-foot-long complete specimen is estimated to fetch $6.5 million to $8.65 million, according to the Zurich-based Koller’s catalogue.
“This is a very low estimate,” warned Koller’s natural history expert Christian Link.
It will be “the third time in the world and the first time in Europe” that a Tirannosaurus rex skeleton is put up for sale, according to the Koller house, which recalls that most specimens of this type are found in museums.
More than half of “Trinity’s” skeleton was assembled using bones from three different T-rex specimens found between 2008 and 2013 in Montana and Wyoming in the northwestern United States, according to the catalogue.
Last year, Christie’s auction house had to withdraw another T-rex skeleton, also from Montana, a few days after the sale in Hong Kong, due to doubts raised by some parts of the skeleton.
Only 32 adult T-rex skeletons, among the largest predators to ever live on Earth, have been found in the world to date, according to a study published in 2021 in the scientific journal Nature.
A complete skeleton of Gorgosaurus, a species of dinosaur cousin to the T-rex that lived more than 77 million years ago, was sold in July by Sotheby’s in New York for $6.1 million.