At Sotheby’s Auction, $30 Million Dinosaur Skeleton Stuns As Martian Meteorite Sets Record

A 54-pound fragment of Mars, dislodged by a cosmic collision and hurled 140 million miles to Earth, became the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction on Wednesday. But it was a rare young dinosaur skeleton that captured the spotlight – fetching more than $30 million in a frenzied bidding battle.

The meteorite, named NWA 16788, sold for $5.3 million after fees at Sotheby’s auction of rare geological and archaeological objects. Described by Sotheby’s as the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, the rock was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter scouring the Sahara Desert in Niger. Pre-sale estimates had placed its value between $2 million and $4 million.

“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chairman for science and natural history, ahead of the auction. Measuring nearly 15 inches long, the meteorite accounts for nearly 7 percent of all known Martian material on Earth.

But while bidding for the Martian rock unfolded in careful increments – often coaxed along by the auctioneer – the atmosphere shifted when a juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton took center stage.

Only four Ceratosaurus skeletons are known to exist, according to Sotheby’s, and this specimen—the only juvenile among them—was fiercely contested. After opening at $6 million, the bidding surged in $500,000 and then $1 million increments, drawing gasps from the audience as six bidders drove the price to $26 million before fees.

The official sale price, with premiums included, came to $30.5 million, making it the third-most expensive dinosaur skeleton ever sold at auction. The buyer, whose identity was not disclosed, plans to loan the skeleton to a public institution.

Assembled from 140 fossilized bones unearthed in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, the juvenile Ceratosaurus stands more than six feet tall and stretches nearly 11 feet long. Its lineage dates back some 150 million years to the late Jurassic period. For comparison, adult Ceratosaurus specimens could grow up to 25 feet long—smaller than their more famous Tyrannosaurus rex cousins, which reached lengths of 40 feet.

The skeleton’s dramatic sale reflects a growing appetite among private collectors and institutions for rare paleontological specimens. Last year, Sotheby’s sold a Stegosaurus skeleton nicknamed “Apex” for a record-setting $44.6 million.

By contrast, the Martian meteorite’s record-breaking result unfolded with less spectacle. Two pre-auction offers, $1.9 million and $2 million, set the stage for a steady sequence of modest live bids. Final bidding stalled at $4.3 million, before fees lifted the total.

Scientific analysis confirmed that NWA 16788 is an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,” a type of volcanic rock formed from slowly cooling magma beneath Mars’s surface. Testing by a specialized lab matched its chemical composition to Martian samples first analyzed by NASA’s Viking landers in the 1970s.

The meteorite’s pitted glassy exterior – a result of superheating during atmospheric entry – offered the first clue that it was not, as Hatton said, “just some big rock on the ground.”

Both the meteorite and the dinosaur skeleton now stand as trophies of scientific and natural history, as well as reminders of the market’s growing fascination with relics from Earth’s past—and Mars’s distant terrain.