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Joopiter to Auction Museum-Displayed Triceratops ‘Trey’ With $4.5–$5.5 Million Estimate

The listing spotlights a market where record prices test public access to scientifically valuable specimens.

Overview

  • Global online bidding runs March 17–31 on Pharrell Williams’s Joopiter platform, which is offering a preauction estimate of $4.5 million to $5.5 million.
  • Joopiter describes Trey as the only museum-exhibited Triceratops skeleton to come to auction, marking the platform’s first fossil sale.
  • Discovered near Lusk, Wyoming, in 1993 and displayed at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center from 1995 to 2023, the 17-foot specimen was restored and mounted before its long public loan.
  • The skeleton was recently sold in a private transaction and is now in Singapore, where it is available for private viewings through the end of March.
  • The auction follows a surge in fossil prices, including the $44.6 million sale of the Stegosaurus ‘Apex,’ as scientists warn that rising values can limit museum access and long-term research.