Mystery winner buys T-rex nicknamed ‘Gus’ for a record $50 million at auction

NEW YORK (AP) — A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil billed as one of the world’s largest and most complete specimens sold for a record $50.1 million Tuesday.

Sotheby’s said the 67-million-year-old fossil, nicknamed “Gus,” is now the $45 million price tag for a nearly complete stegosaurus sold by the same New York auction house in 2024. The previous record holder had been a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed “Stan” that sold for nearly $32 million in 2020.

“Gus is not only an exceptional find, but a specimen that’s been excavated, documented, prepared, and cared for with real excellence,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chair, said after the sale was completed. “The market responds when great specimens are taken care of in the right way.”

Why the bidding for this T. rex was intense

Standing upright with its tail extended and right foot slightly raised, “Gus” is an adult dinosaur specimen measuring about 12 ½ feet (3.8 meters) tall and 38 feet (11.5 meters) long.

He’s about 63% complete, with what Sotheby’s describes as an “exceptionally preserved” skull including a gaping jaw of powerful teeth, two “well represented” feet and a number of rarely found bones, including a furcula, or wishbone.

The fossil was discovered in 2021 on a ranch in South Dakota and named in honor of property owner Gary Licking, who died during the roughly five year excavation, restoration and mounting process.

The auction house said the mystery winner outbid six other prospective buyers during Tuesday’s 10-minute bidding battle.

“Try a bigger bite,” auctioneer Phyllis Kao cajoled the bidders at one point as the auction was conducted live and online. “It’s a T. rex, after all.”

Spokespersons didn’t respond to an email seeking more information about the winning bidder or their plans for the piece, which had been estimated to fetch anywhere from $20 to $30 million ahead of the sale.

Scientists want ‘Gus’ on public display

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an advocacy group of scientists, scholars and students, said ahead of Tuesday’s sale that scientifically significant fossils such as “Gus” should be publicly displayed in museums and other research institutions so that they can be “preserved, documented, and accessible for future generations.”

“The discovery of an important fossil is only the beginning of its scientific story,” Kristina Curry Rogers, the society’s vice president, explained in a statement. “Many of the most significant advances in paleontology have come years or even decades after a fossil was collected, as new analytical methods and technologies allowed scientists to ask entirely new questions of specimens already housed in museum collections.”

Indeed, “Apex,” the stegosaurus, the previous dinosaur fossil record-holder, is currently on long-term loan to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. “Sue” the T. rex, the first dinosaur ever sold at auction in 1997, also by Sotheby’s, is a centerpiece of the Field Museum in Chicago.

And “Stan” is on display at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, posed in combat with another fossilized T. rex over the remains of a triceratops.

A Cretaceous king and Hollywood staple

Tyrannosaurus rex, whose name roughly translates to “King of the Tyrant Lizards,” stood firmly at the top of the food chain when it ruled during the late Cretaceous period.

With its fearsome jawline and comically stubby arms, it has become the most recognizable and beloved of the dinosaurs, depicted in everything from children’s programs like Barney, the purple T. rex, to the enduring “Jurassic Park” movie franchise.

The great beasts roamed what is today western North America, during a time when the region boasted “warm climates, high sea levels, and rich coastal floodplains” that allowed their primary prey, giant herbivores like the triceratops, to flourish, according to Sotheby’s.