Nicknamed Shen, meaning divinity, it will be on display for three days before being shipped to Hong Kong. It will be sold in November.
“None of the 20 tyrannosaurs rex in existence in the world are owned by an Asian institution or an Asian collector,” said Francis Belin, Christie’s Asia-Pacific president.
The dinosaur, an adult 4.6 meters tall and 12 meters long and who lived about 67 million years ago, is believed to be male.. It was unearthed in 2020 on private land in the Hell Creek Formation, in Montana, United States.
“I’ve never seen a fossil […] It’s blown me away because it’s quite majestic,” said Lauren Lim, 33, who came to see the exhibit.
In recent years, several dinosaurs have been auctioned off, a trend that worries several experts.
“It’s sad that dinosaurs are becoming collectible toys for the oligarchic classsaid Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, adding that the fossil remains should be in museums.
Thomas Carr, an American paleontologist, stated that these sales are “unquestionably detrimental to science”, since there is no guarantee that a private fossil can be studied again.
Belin hopes “that the new owner, be it an institution or an individual, will make sure that the public sees it.”