Parisian auction house Gros and Delettrez is offering a 66 million-year-old Triceratops prorsus skull on December 11, with an estimate of €300,000–€500,000 ($345,615–$576,025). The specimen, which surfaced from Wyoming's Lance Formation, is exceptionally complete with over 70 percent of its original bones and all three original horns intact. This marks the auction house's first dinosaur offering and will christen its new Rive Gauche headquarters, with the skull going on view on December 9 alongside works by Pablo Picasso and Pierre Soulages.
This sale underscores the growing global appetite for dinosaur fossils as collectible luxury items, following record-breaking sales like Sotheby's $1.7 million Pachycephalosaurus skull and the $6 million T.Rex skull. The auction also highlights France's emerging role in the dinosaur market, which began with Sotheby's 2010 Allosaurus sale and includes high-profile lots like "Big John" the Triceratops, which sold for €6.6 million in 2021. The event raises questions about the provenance and commercialization of scientifically significant fossils.