Noted auction house, Bonhams & Butterfields, tried to find a happy home for a dinosaur skeleton this past Saturday;
Samson, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, is still up for sale.
however, it was one of 17 lots that didn’t move at the Natural History Auction at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
The auction house had hoped to sell the 40-foot tall 66-million-year-old Tyronnosaurus Rex for an estimated $6 million (his name is “Samson” by the way). By the time the day was done though, only 60% of the items had moved.
Samson is the third most complete T. Rex ever pulled from the ground and is one of four known T. rex specimens which display characteristics that set it apart from other examples of the species.”
Samson was the first T. rex to come on the scene since 1997, when Sotheby’s auctioned Sue, a dinosaur of similar size. The Field Museum in Chicago picked her up for a record $8.36 million – a price that still has not been topped. Sue is considered to be the largest and most complete T. rex ever excavated.
