Overview
- Sotheby’s announced in late May that it will offer the mounted T. rex nicknamed “Gus” at a New York natural history sale scheduled for July and will show the specimen in its Manhattan galleries before the auction.
- The house set a $20–30 million base estimate, which it says is the highest starting price ever assigned to a dinosaur offered at auction.
- Sotheby’s and preparators describe Gus as unusually complete and well preserved: about 11.6 meters long, 3.8 meters high, a 137 cm skull, 183 fossil elements and roughly 63% complete by bone count representing about 75–80% of the animal’s mass.
- The specimen was found on private land in Harding County, South Dakota, and excavated by a team led by Thomas Heitkamp between 2021 and 2023 on a ranch owned by Gary “Gus” Licking.
- The sale follows recent multimillion‑dollar fossil auctions such as 2024’s Apex and 2020’s Stan, stoking debate between scientists who warn private sales can restrict research and auction representatives who point to pre‑sale displays, museum loans and funds for future digs.