Cover Shen (Photo: courtesy of Christie's)
Expected to fetch as much as HK$200,000,000, Shen, a rare dinosaur skeleton, will be sold by Christie’s this November
Above Courtesy of Christie's

A Tyrannosaurus rex named Shen will be put up for auction at Christie’s Autumn Auction in Hong Kong on November 30 this year. This is the first time a T. rex fossil will be offered for auction in Asia.

Tatler Asia
Above Shen's skull (Photo: courtesy of Christie's)

Expected to fetch between HK$120,000,000 and HK$200,000,000, Shen will be exhibited at the Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall in Singapore, before being displayed and auctioned at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre alongside modern and contemporary art items.

Shen, named by Christie’s, means “god” or “godlike” in Mandarin. The 66 million-year-old fossil from the Cretaceous period measures 12.2 metres long, 4.6 metres high and 2.1 metres wide, and weighs 1,400kg.

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Above Shen's ribcage (Photo: courtesy of Christie's)

“From its surging, bloodthirsty stance, to its remarkable preservation, this is one of the most scientifically studied T. rex skeletons to come to auction,” says James Hyslop, the head of science and natural history at Christie’s. He adds that only about one in 80 million T. rexes have survived, making Shen an exceptionally rare specimen.

The fossil was unearthed two years ago in the US state of Montana in a stretch know as Hell Creek Formation, an area filled with Upper Cretaceous and Lower Paleocene rocks where many dinosaur fossils have been discovered.

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Above Shen's jaw (Photo: courtesy of Christie's)

Shen isn’t the first dinosaur skeleton to be auctioned by Christie’s. Stan the T. rex was sold to an Abu Dhabi museum for a record-breaking US$31.8 million in 2020; Hector, a raptor fossil, was sold to unnamed private owners for US$12.4 million this May.

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