Cancelled T-Rex auction sparks debate

Not for sale: Workers assembling the skeleton of Shen the T-Rex in Singapore last month. The skeleton was on display in the city-state before it was to be auctioned off in Hong Kong on Nov 30. The auction has since been called off. — AFP

After the unexpected removal of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from auction, the silver lining is that it will be loaned to a museum for the public to enjoy and not kept in a collector’s home, said fossil experts and palaeontologists.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that auction house Christie’s Hong Kong had called off the sale of Shen the T-Rex after a South Dakota fossil firm said it seems the skeleton’s missing bones had been supplemented with a cast of another skeleton, named Stan, which the firm owns all intellectual property rights to.