Nearly 16 feet long and 7 feet tall, Barry the dinosaur, a 150-million-year-old plant eater, is headed to the auction block. Hotel Drouot
Nearly 16 feet long and 7 feet tall, Barry is a Camptosaurus, part of the Iguanodontidae family, one of the earliest groups of dinosaurs discovered, according to the Paris auction house Hôtel Drouot. Recently restored, the fossilized creature is set to go under the hammer on Oct. 20 with an estimate of $855,132 to $1.28 million.
“Of extraordinary quality and exceptional provenance, Barry, enhanced with this new preparation, is one of the most complete dinosaurs ever auctioned,” Alexandre Giquello, the president of the auction house, said in an email.
Indeed, about 80% of the bones are original, with 90% of the skull remaining intact, according to Hôtel Drouot.
This is Barry’s first public appearance, having been in the private collection of a Colorado collector since soon after its discovery in Wyoming in the early 2000s, according to Hôtel Drouot. The bones were found in the so-called Morrison Formation, a fossil rich area of the state. It was a rare discovery, as ornithopod dinosaurs represent about 14% of the specimens found there, and most remains found there are disarticulated.
Last year, experts from the Italian company Zoic bought the bones and, along with scientists from the University of Bologna’s Paleontology Department, undertook a “vast rediscovery project,” according to a news release.
“Zoic undertook the meticulous task of disassembling, cleaning, and cataloging the specimen’s original bones in order to carry out a complete reconstruction of the specimen according to current scientific standards,” according to the auction house.
The skeleton was then given its current name, after paleontologist Barry James, who originally unearthed the 150-million-year-old bones.
“I’m particularly proud this year to be able to offer for sale at Drouot, for Giquello auction house, a specimen of such impeccable quality and with such an interesting provenance as that of Barry,” paleontology expert Iacopo Briano said in a statement.
He’s seen the market for dinosaur fossils evolve into a robust market.
“In the early years, when this specialty was starting to establish itself on the market, the sale of a dinosaur might have seemed an oddity, almost something foreign to classic collecting,” he said. “But today the market is experiencing a phase of maturity and expansion, and specimens with a long pedigree are once again becoming accessible to a new generation of buyers.”
Indeed, last summer a Gorgosaurus skeleton—nearly 10 feet tall and 22 feet long and the first-of-its-kind to appear at auction—sold for $6.1 million with Sotheby’s.
The record price for a dinosaur skeleton was $31.8 million for a Tyrannosaurus rex sold in 2020 by Christie’s.
This article was first published on Barrons.com.