The stegosaurus, named “Apex,” is 150 million years old, stands at 11 feet tall, and stretches nearly 27 feet in length from head to tail. It is a mostly complete skeleton consisting of 254 fossil bone elements. The initial estimate for Apex’s sale was around $6 million.
Griffin emerged victorious at the live auction in New York after engaging in a 15-minute bidding war with six other participants. Sources familiar with his intentions mentioned that he plans to consider lending the specimen to an institution in the United States.
Commenting on the purchase, Griffin expressed, “Apex was born in America and is going to stay in America!”
According to Sotheby’s, Apex exhibits no signs of injuries related to combat or indications of scavenging after its demise. The stegosaurus fossil was unearthed on private property in Moffat County, Colorado.
In 2018, Griffin made a generous donation of $16.5 million to Chicago’s Field Museum to assist in showcasing a cast of the largest dinosaur ever found—a massive herbivore with a long neck from Argentina.
Moreover, in 2021, he acquired a first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution for $43.2 million, outbidding a consortium of cryptocurrency investors. Griffin later lent the historical document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.
Image Source: LSP EM / Shutterstock
