A massive Stegosaurus skeleton hit the auction block this week – and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin scooped it up with a $44.6 million winning bid.
The 27-foot-long “virtually complete” dinosaur fossil called “Apex” had gone under the hammer Wednesday as part of a larger natural history-focused auction held by Sotheby’s. Pre-auction estimates had suggested it would draw $4 million to $6 million, per a late May press release from the auction house.
Instead, its eight-figure winning bid made it the “most valuable fossil ever sold at auction,” Sotheby’s said Wednesday in a post that did not name the buyer.
The Wall Street Journal first identified Griffin as the new owner of “Apex” in a late Wednesday report, and a source familiar with the situation confirmed to FOX Business that he bought it.
The Citadel CEO was quoted as saying “Apex” was “born in America and is going to stay in America” post-auction. He wants to loan it out to an American institution for public viewing.
The Stegosaurus fossil came from Moffat County, Colorado, where a “well-known and respected commercial paleontologist” found and dug it up in an excavation process that ended in October of last year, Sotheby’s said in late May. It dates back to the late Jurassic period.
The prior record-setting dinosaur skeleton was a $31.8 million T. rex called “Stan” sold by Christie’s a few years ago. It wound up in an Abu Dhabi museum.
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Griffin’s purchase of “Apex” and his plans to show it publicly in the U.S. come after the Citadel CEO previously provided $16.5 million to the Field Museum seven years ago for a gallery to exhibit a famous T. rex skeleton and for a massive titanosaur cast that guests can touch. The Field Museum is home to the Griffin Dinosaur Experience that was “made possible by the generous support” of the Citadel CEO, according to the museum’s website.
The now-record-setting Stegosaurus fossil spent time publicly exhibited in Sotheby’s New York gallery ahead of it hitting the auction block.
The auction house previously said the fossil’s name “underscores its prominence within the Stegosaurus family, reinforcing the high regard for Stegosaurus among dinosaurs.”
Griffin has a personal fortune of $37.9 billion, according to Forbes. He has reportedly made $2.2 billion worth of charitable contributions to various places over the years.
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