← All 50 obscenities
Lot 1/5 · Historical Antiquities2020
#1 Most Expensive
The ItemStan the T. rex

A 67-million-year-old skeleton became the most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold.

$31,800,000

The Item

Discovered in South Dakota in 1987, Stan is roughly 67 million years old and about 80% complete by bone count.

That makes it one of the best-preserved T. rex specimens ever unearthed, and a fixture of paleontology research for decades before its sale.

Why It's Obscene

Christie's sold it in 2020 for $31.8 million, smashing every previous fossil auction record.

The buyer was later revealed to be a new natural history museum being built in Abu Dhabi — meaning one of science's most studied dinosaurs is now, quite literally, private property.

Stan the T. rexVerified · Public record
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