The museum said: “Any original dinosaur fossils are rare and valuable scientific resources that should be made available to scientists for research. The skeletons are more than 80 per cent complete, with two of them having original skulls. The National University of Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum houses three diplodocid sauropod dinosaur skeletons. They are also hoping that Shen will end up in a museum in Asia since no museum in the region displays a T-Rex. Right now, it’s just suspicious that they have withdrawn the T-Rex without much information.” Mr Elliott Ong, 25, who works in nature conservation, said: “If the skeleton had 54 per cent of actual fossils, it would have been fine. Mr Jim Xianyu, 45, who is self-employed, said: “I’m not sure how much of the skeleton I saw was original and how much was a replica of Stan.” But they were disappointed the auction house was unclear about how much of the skeleton is real. and the more the real bones, the more the value of the specimen.ĭinosaur enthusiasts who saw Shen at VCH said they are glad the skeleton is going to a museum since it is a significant relic of natural heritage. Shen was displayed at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (VCH) in Singapore from Oct 28 to Oct 30.Įurope-based fossil auction specialist Iacopo Briano said: “Christie’s did the right thing in order to protect potential buyers. ST has asked the consignor through Christie’s about Shen’s whereabouts and the museum it will be loaned to. Mr Larson told NYT it seemed that the owner of Shen bought a cast of Stan from Black Hills to supplement the original bones. The Nov 25 to Nov 30 auction – for which Shen was the headline item – will proceed as planned, with 20th- and 21st-century art, Asian art and luxury goods to go under the hammer.Ĭhristie’s has not revealed the T-Rex’s consignor. Christie’s conducts research at the highest standard in the auction business on all objects we offer for sale.”

Mr Larson had noticed that Shen’s skull looked similar to that of Stan’s, including holes in the lower left jaw that he said were unique to Stan.īut one of the two palaeontologists who studied Shen’s original bones was quoted in Christie’s webpage as saying that Shen’s skull is incredibly complete and well preserved – including the jaw, dentary bones and nasal bones.Įxplaining the intellectual property conflict, Mr Chua said: “If I took the Hulk from Marvel Studios, changed his colour to yellow, drew new facial features and then sold it as my own character, that would be an obvious breach of intellectual property by me.”Ī spokesman for Christie’s Hong Kong told ST: “We believe the original elements of Shen are authentic. “This was absolutely not true because Stan is a registered trademark and every square centimetre of surface is a registered copyright. “(Christie’s) were also told, and told the buyers, that ‘all rights went to the buyer’. “Every tooth, every pathology, every compression crack, every foramen, every detail of the skull, as far as I could discern, was Stan. When The Straits Times contacted Black Hills, its president and dinosaur expert Peter Larson said: “The (skeleton) was so incomplete that I could not see anything in the photos presented for the auction that was not a cast of Stan.

Mr Chua added that Shen is incomplete compared with Stan and the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History’s Sue the T-Rex, which has 250 real bones.

“Some from the online palaeontological community, from private collectors to museums, were unhappy with the misleading auction seemingly painting Shen as being a highly complete skeleton when it was in fact missing many bones.”

T rex real bones