“Big John”, the largest known triceratops, is auctioned this Thursday in the Drouot auction house (Paris) by the Giquello house.
The price of the specimen is estimated between 1.2 to 1.5 million euros by the French holding company, specializing in the art market.
He arrived !
Big John, the largest triceratops in the world, is at the Hotel Drouot.
Come and discover it from today until Thursday in room 5 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., as always, admission is free and open.
It will be auctioned on Thursday afternoon by @BGiquello pic.twitter.com/4NoUqLQtVy
– Drouot (@Drouot) October 18, 2021
“Big John” has a two-meter-wide skull and will be sold with some 200 bones, as well as two horns measuring more than one meter, for a complete set at more than 60% (75% for the skull).
DEATH IN COMBAT
Triceratops was discovered in 2014 in South Dakota (United States), by geologist Walter W. Stein Bill. According to Alexandre Giquello, the auctioneer, there are “a dozen possible buyers”.
The prehistoric animal lived on Laramidia, an island-continent that existed during the Late Cretaceous era, in North America.
His death in a floodplain allowed the skeleton to be preserved in the mud, a sediment without biological activity. As indicated by a laceration in the skull, he probably lost his life after a fight.
Like many of its counterparts authorized for sale, “Big John” should fall into the hands of a private collector, and potentially escape science and museums, and therefore the general public.