Latest must-have for the billionaire who's got everything? A £40MILLION T-Rex

By TOM LEONARD, US CORRESPONDENT Published: 23:16, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 23:19, 30 July 2026 It must be soul-destroying for the world's richest people to think they have everything money can buy – and then discover that there's something they don't possess but others do. Like a dinosaur. As confirmed by the record-breaking £37.4million auction by Sotheby's of a Tyrannosaurus rex in New York this month, the bones of these celebrated denizens of the Mesozoic Era have become the latest must-have accessory for the ridiculously rich. The reconstructed skeletons – once the preserve of dusty natural history museums seeking a showstopper for their main exhibition hall – are the latest craze among those who crave more than world-class Old Masters collections or superyachts to impress family, friends and future wives. 'Gus', a T-Rex discovered in South Dakota, has been bought by an unknown buyer. But given that even the largest museums have purchasing budgets only a fraction of that figure, experts say it's safe to assume it has gone to a private individual. And to the sort with a home – or rather homes – crying out for a 38ft-long, 67-million-year-old centrepiece. Gus, whose skeleton is 63 per cent complete (making this one far more intact than those in most museums), comes ready-mounted in a 'predatory pose' that may well match the personality of his new owner. The monstrous price reflects the fact that dinosaur bones – which are mostly found in the US, China and Argentina – have become a hot investment asset, up there with art, sporting memorabilia and classic cars. There was a ten-minute bidding battle between five hopeful buyers for Gus, whom it took three years to excavate from the arid Badlands of South Dakota. 'Try a bigger bite - it's a T-Rex after all,' joked the Sotheby's auctioneer as she tried to hike the price to more than £37million ($50million). 'Gus', a T-Rex discovered in South Dakota , has been bought by an unknown buyer. His skeleton is seen here 'Gus' surpassed the previous record held by Sotheby's, for 'Apex' the stegosaurus who achieved $44.6 million in 2024 But one person's gain is often another person's loss and museums lament that the public will never get the chance to see remains that should be regarded as world treasures. The previous dino-auction record was set by billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, one of America's richest men, who two years ago paid $44.6million (£34million) for Apex, a 150-million-year-old, 27ft-long Stegosaurus.  With an art collection valued at $800million (£600million), two private jets and properties dotted all over the world, Griffin has broken various sales records such as making the biggest private art purchase for $500million (£376million), buying London's most expensive home in nearly a decade for £95million, and – just two days later – snapping up a $238million (£177million) Manhattan penthouse that was the highest-priced home sold in the US. So it's fair to assume that Mr Griffin – and others like him – don't buy dinosaurs because of their passion for palaeontology. They essentially want something that looks great rampaging through one of their homes. A T-Rex – notorious for its razor-sharp teeth and rapacious temperament – goes for a premium. Velociraptors (the smaller but similarly terrifying carnivores of Jurassic Park fame) are also very popular, while plodding vegetarian dinosaurs with unremarkable dentistry tend to be cheaper. 'It's the best trophy you could own,' Dan O'Dowd, a billionaire software entrepreneur, told Bloomberg News. He bought a T-Rex named Samson for $600,000 (£446,000) in 2009, at a time when relatively few dinosaur bones were being auctioned.  He picked up a bargain, but in the past decade – fuelled by the excitement of top Hollywood actors getting involved and the discovery of ever more complete skeletons – the trade has exploded to the point that there are now two or three major sales every year. In the process, to the dismay of many scientists, prices have soared and fossilised dinosaurs have become just another commodity. The head of 'Gus', part of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, one of the largest T. rex ever found, is pictured during a press preview at the Sotheby's Breuer building in New York Nicolas Cage bought the skull of a Tarbosaurus bataar (an Asian relative of the T-Rex) at auction in 2007 – beating Leonardo DiCaprio to make the winning bid of $276,000 (£205,000). Cage later found out it had been illegally excavated from Mongolia and had to return it. Prices shot up dramatically in 2020 when Stan, another T-Rex, was bought for $31.8million (£23.7million) by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism – smashing the previous record price of $8.4million (£6.2million) achieved nearly 30 years earlier for Sue, yet another T-Rex, who now stands in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The multi-million-dollar business has prompted a heated debate among palaeontologists about whether dinosaurs should ever be in private ownership. Many are sold to anonymous buyers who whisk them away, making it impossible for scientists even to request to study them. Experts say there have been cases of wealthy couples divorcing and dinosaur bones simply being thrown in a skip. The issue is complicated by the fact that the US allows fossils excavated on private land to be sold commercially while the practice is illegal in other countries. And, as Nicolas Cage discovered, it's difficult to be certain where a particular fossil came from.  The vast sums that private buyers are paying is inevitably encouraging the illegal poaching of skeletons – especially in poorer countries like Brazil and Morocco – in a mania that has been dubbed 'the bone rush'. In remote areas such as Mongolia's Gobi Desert, 'fossil poachers' use ruthless methods – such as blowing up sites with dynamite – to reach precious bones quickly, even if it destroys others in the process. Last November, British authorities seized the bones of a mother and baby Allosaurus as well as a Stegosaurus – all together worth £12.4million – from Singapore-based Chinese business leader Su Binghai, who is linked to a £2.5billion money-laundering operation. Some scientists claim that giving palaeontologists a stronger financial motive to find new bones would only increase scientific understanding. They also insist that many private purchasers eventually lend or donate their fossils to museums. However, other experts vehemently disagree, saying that money and greed are crippling the efforts of scientists to discover and preserve the wonders of the dinosaur era. Such old fossils, they warn, require conservation skills they're unlikely to get in a private collection. Susannah Maidment, of London's Natural History Museum – which has just £23,000 to spend each year on acquisitions – called the trend for the super-rich to buy fossilised dinosaurs 'completely obscene'. Professor Richard Butler, a palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham, told the Daily Mail that most privately-owned skeletons are never donated to museums – and so are 'effectively lost to science' since scientists can only reliably conduct research on museum-held fossils. But how much does science matter to the billionaire whose search for the perfect ornament for their front hall is finally over?