Why did they sell " Big John" to a private collector?
Asked by
omtatsat (
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October 22nd, 2021
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21 Answers
Probably for the money.
Anyway “should be” is a normative statement, thus not provable by argument.
“Is this not something that should be shared by all people?”
No, that is communism.
It’s hard to fathom why any private person would need a life-size fossil of a Triceratops but we live in a debauched age. I agree that it should be in on public view. The article states that museums did not have the money to buy it.
Is the seller not as guilty as the buyer, of making it so that big guy will (possibly) never be seen again by the public?
I don’t understand how it’s even possible to make a profit from something like this?
Museums cannot afford to own everything they display. They depend on patrons to help them.
Others are concerned that important finds will end up adorning the private mansions of the ultra-rich rather than museum halls.
“A private, anonymous collector from the US bought Big John’s skeleton, which was put on public display at the Drouot auction house in Paris last week.”
Regarding the long, downward curving thingy below Big John’s tail: who woulda thunk that would survive fossilization?! ;-o
I suck. I know. :/
And the quote was from the OP’s own link.
Other than this one being a GBMF, who caresl if it goes into a private collection? It isn’t like there are a lot of places that can keep it on display.
The American Museum of Natural History in NY doesn’y have room for it, nor does the Smithsonian in Washington or the Field in Chicago. You get Big John, you have to put a T Rex in the closet.
The fact that it’s referred to as “Big John” is the most disturbing part of the story.
Why? Because the buyer had the money to buy it so he did. One museum said the price was 20–25 years of his museum’s budget.
I have yet to find out who owned Big John…who had the right to sell it. I would think the U.S. owned it since it was found in South Dakota? or the university that supplied the paleontologists? or whoever discovered it?
@smudges The skeleton was first discovered in South Dakota by geologist Walter W. Stein Bill in 2014. It is thought the dinosaur lived in Laramidia, an enormous, ancient continent that, today, would have stretched between Alaska and Mexico. -CNN
I haven’t found more yet either.
@KNOWITALL Thanks. I’ll keep searching and post anything I find here.
I did a search too and couldn’t find who the seller was. It might be a consortium of the people who found it and the people in Italy who assembled it.
It seems we don’t know very much about the sale but one thing is apparent, this private individual whoever he is has far too much money.
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