Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, bought the Stegosaurus skeleton to be auctioned at Sotheby’s on Wednesday for $44.6 million, making it the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction.
Billionaire Ken Griffin now owns a Stegosaurus skeleton that sold at auction for $44 million
According to Sotheby’s, the Stegosaurus skeleton, aptly named “Apex,” is one of the most complete fossils ever discovered. With 254 of the 319 bones still intact, the rest could be completed with precise 3D-printed or hand-crafted replicas. The 150-million-year-old herbivores that roamed the prehistoric landscape have now found a new purpose. Measuring 3.4 meters tall and 8.2 meters long, Apex is also the largest stegosaurus skeleton ever discovered, and the largest dinosaur skeleton ever discovered.
Apex was originally expected to sell for about $6 million, so it’s a small deal. Griffin won the live auction in New York after a tense 15-minute bidding battle with six other bidders. He’s considering loaning the skeleton to an American museum, according to sources familiar with his plans. “Apex was born in America and will stay in America!” Griffin declared after the sale, with a touch of patriotism.
This is not the first time
according to Sotheby’s Apex shows no signs of battle injuries or post-mortem scavenger marks. The Stegosaurus was discovered on private property in Moffat County, Colorado.
This isn’t the first time billionaire Griffin has reached into his wallet for a prehistoric item. In 2018, he donated $16.5 million to the Field Museum in Chicago to fund an exhibition of a physical replica of the largest dinosaur ever discovered — a giant, long-necked herbivore from Argentina. In 2021, Griffin paid $43.2 million for the first edition of the United States Constitution, beating out a group of cryptocurrency investors. He later loaned the historic document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.
