Auction house Koller has announced its second ‘Out of This World’ auction in Zurich, and the highlight of the sale is an entire T. Rex skeleton.
The largest of all carnivores, with razor claws and robust jaws, T. Rex is the most iconic dinosaur to ever walk the earth. With over 50% original bone material and mounted in a dynamic, scientifically accurate and modern pose, the 67-million-year-old TRX-293 Trinity is well preserved and of exceptional quality.
This spectacular skeleton contains bones of three exceptional Tyrannosaurus specimens that were unearthed between 2008 and 2013 in Wyoming and Montana. The giant dinosaur is estimated at US$ 5.4 million to 8.6 million.
Just the third of its kind, this T. Rex is preceded by ‘Sue’, who was auctioned for $8.4 million in 1997, and ‘Stan’, who was auctioned for world-record price of $31.8 million in 2020. Sue is currently on view at Chicago’s Field Museum, while Stan was acquired by an unknown bidder.
Just like a T. Rex’s hands, Trinity’s hands are inclined, unlike older mounts.
The TRINITY fossil was prepared and constructed by Nils Knötschke, who was formerly the scientific director of the Dinosaur Museum and National Geotope in Münchehagen, Germany’s largest open-air dinosaur museum. “After twenty-three years of working with original dinosaur fossils, assembling TRX-293 is one of the absolute highlights of my career; a once in lifetime opportunity,” he said. He was also helped by preparator Yolanda Schicker-Siber of the Dinosaur Museum in Aathal, Switzerland. “On older mountings, a common mistake is that the hands are not inclined. T. Rex had very short and inclined arms, literally as long as a human arm. I really like the massive and elegant mount of TRINITY. It’s quite modern and very well made,” explained Mr. Knötschke.
The auction is a result of the Wunderkammer department – at Koller – whose sole task is to collect out of the box artefacts. Wunderkammer – which means cabinet of curiosities – is also presenting 75 other exciting objects, including one of the largest Mars meteorites on Earth and a space suit that was used on international space missions.
The sale will include original movie props from Batman, The Exorcist, Alien and a huge gold nugget. TRINITY can be viewed in the spectacular foyer of Tonhalle Zurich, next to Lake Zurich, in Switzerland, before the sale on April 18, 2023.
