史上最大のトリケラトプス化石、８．７億円で落札

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】これまで発掘された草食恐竜トリケラトプスの化石で最大となる骨格標本「ビッグ・ジョン」が２１日、仏パリで競売に掛けられ、米国の個人収集家により６６０万ユーロ（約８億７０００万円）で落札された。（写真は仏パリの競売所ドゥルオーで、競売に先立ち展示されたトリケラトプス「ビッグ・ジョン」の骨格標本）
　化石は約６６００万年前のもので、全長は８メートルに上る。競売大手ドゥルオーが行った競売では、手数料を除く最終価格が５５０万ユーロ（約７億３０００万円）に達し、予想額の１５０万ユーロ（約２億円）を大きく上回った。
　競売には落札者のほかに１０人が参加。最後は３人が競り合い、価格がつり上がった。ドゥルオーによると、落札者はビッグ・ジョンを見て「恋に」落ちたと語っている。落札者の名前は公開されていない。
　ビッグ・ジョンには骨格全体の６０％が含まれる。２０１４年に米サウスダコタ州で発掘され、イタリアの専門家チームによって復元された。今後米国に帰り、落札者の個人所有物となる。
　ビッグ・ジョンは最後の恐竜時代である白亜紀後期に生息。氾濫原で死に、泥に埋もれたため、保存状態は極めて良好だった。頭蓋骨の近くに角による傷があることから、少なくとも１度は激しい戦いを経験したものとみられる。
　今回の落札価格は、博物館にはとうてい手が届かないものだった。しかしドゥルオーは、落札者が博物館や展示会に標本を貸し出すことで、一般公開される可能性もあるとしている。オークションの前には、研究者による骨の分析が行われた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/22-14:18）

Big John, 66 million years old and the largest triceratops skeleton ever unearthed at eight metres long, was sold at auction to a US collector on Thursday for a gargantuan 6.6 million euros.
The final price reached at the Drouot auction house in Paris -- 5.5 million euros before fees -- was well above the expected 1.5 million euros.
Big John's skeleton is 60 percent complete, and was unearthed in South Dakota, United States in 2014 and put together by specialists in Italy.
He will return to the US and the private collection of the unnamed buyer, who the auction house said had fallen in love with Big John after coming to view him.
The buyer beat 10 other bidders, with three in particular driving up the price in the final minutes.
I wasn't expecting this, said paleontologist Iacopo Briano who was overseeing the sale.
Big John lived during the Upper Cretaceous period, the final era of dinosaurs, and died in a floodplain, buried in mud that kept him very well preserved.
A horn injury near his cranium suggests he got into at least one nasty fight.
The sale was still far off the record of $31.8 million paid last year for a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in New York.
But the price all but guaranteed that museums would be excluded from the purchase.
We can't compete, said Francis Duranthon, director of the Toulouse Museum of Natural History, ahead of the auction.
He said even the initial expected price represented 20 to 25 years of his acquisitions budget.
So Big John is headed for a private collection, but the auction house said there is still a chance the buyer may lend the skeleton to a museum or gallery for public viewings.
Scientists were able to analyse the bones before the auction.
The triceratops is among the most distinctive of dinosaurs due to the three horns on its head -- one at the nose and two on the forehead -- that give the dinosaur its Latin name.
Dinosaur sales can be unpredictable, however: in 2020, several specimens offered in Paris did not find takers after minimum prices were not reached.