Stan stole the show.
A nearly complete fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, nicknamed Stan, went for $27.5 million at a Christie’s contemporary art auction, according to artnet news. The event was livestreamed from Rockefeller Center on Tuesday and realized $340.8 million in sales, “squarely in the middle of presale expectations.”
The event featured a mix of in-person auctioneers and specialists on phone banks, as well as participants on Christie’s website. Christie’s attempted to inject some of the same drama found at in-person events by adding “elaborate set designs and background music that seemed aimed at filling in some of the pauses in bidding,” according to the report. Two veteran specialists offered “the novelty of live commentary.”
While there were 55 lots on offer—primarily consisting of 20th-century art—the nearly complete T. rex skeleton was the premier item. Bidding opened at $3 million, under a separate auctioneer, Tash Perrin, and the winning bid was made by Christie’s specialist James Hislop. Hislop declined to state if Stan was sold to a private or institutional buyer.
With museums deaccessioning, “some institutions [opted] to take advantage of relaxed Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) rules allowing sales of collection works to sustain museums in difficult times,” according to the report.
Of those, the Springfield Museums, located in Springfield, Mass., decided to deaccession 13 items, including Pablo Picasso’s La Poule (1950). It was sold for $4.3 million at Tuesday’s auction. Overall, bidding was “solid, if rarely heated,” according to the report.