Tyrannosaurus Skull Sells For $276,000 In New York City; Mammoth Tusk Sells For Record $96,000
New York, NY. March 25, 2007—Not to be outdone by the hand of an Egyptian mummy that sold for $4,500, twice the low-end
estimate, the tusk of a Woolly Mammoth found on the Siberian tundra sold for $96,000---the most a mammoth tusk has ever
commanded at auction.
A prepped and mounted Tyrannosaurus skull sold for $276,000---another record. According to Jake Chait, the son of
principal I.M. Chait, “The skull was sold to an anonymous collector.” Estimated to sell at $140,000-180,000, this was
the second highest amount paid for a dinosaur specimen at auction.
The Director of Natural History for Chait, David Herskowitz enthused, “The market for natural history remains vibrant
and our New York City debut far surpassed all our expectations. This is the highest-grossing collection of natural
history sold at auction since such sales first began in 1995.”
It was Happy Feet for a 10-million year old fossil penguin found in the Atacama Desert in Chile which sold for $9,600; a
multi-hued tourmaline crystal from Afghanistan sold for $32,000 and at the high-end of it’s $40,000-50,000 estimate, a
fossil plate of a flying dinosaur skeleton quarried in Germany sold for $48,000.
A small aesthetic iron meteorite recovered in Southwestern Africa that weighed just 11 pounds sold for $32,500. Said
meteorite specialist, Darryl Pitt, “This was another banner day for extraterrestrial real estate.” And not only---a gold
nugget from Western Australia weighing 62 troy ounces sold for $72,000.
Other lots sold in the 345 lot auction included amber, gems, tribal artifacts, fossilized plants, mammals, birds and
fish and dozens of lots of dinosauria—including vertebrae, claws and eggs.
ENDS