Jurassic Icons: Allosaurus & Stegosaurus

Sale Overview

This season, for the first time, Christie’s is honoured to present three dinosaur skeletons at auction. Jurassic Icons features the instantly recognisable Stegosaurus, with its tail spikes and rows of armoured plates, alongside a pair of the fearsome carnivorous Allosaurus. They were found in close proximity to each other in the Meilyn quarry in Wyoming and are preserved in a remarkable state with an aesthetic black colour to their fossil bones. These impressive animals lived in the late Jurassic approximately 157 to 145 million ago in a semi-arid savannah-like landscape and were perfectly adapted to their environment as prey and apex predator. With a long history of study dating back to the ‘Bones Wars’ of the late 19th century, these animals have delighted scientist and public alike and will be the first dinosaur skeletons offered at King Street.

Witness the return of a lost Jurassic world in our video.

On 4 December at 5pm GMT, James Hyslop, Head of Science and Natural History, will be joined by Rüdiger Pohl, who led the team that worked on the allosaurus and stegosaurus skeletons, sharing exciting stories of the discovery. Register now for the exclusive free Christie’s Education webinar.

Auction times

12 Dec 02:30 PM (GMT) Lots 1-2

Brought to you by

James Hyslop

Head of Department, Science & Natural History | Science & Natural History

James has been Christie’s specialist for Science & Natural History since 2007, and head of Department since 2012.

His first auction at Christie’s was the highly successful pair of Blaeu globes sold in Amsterdam in 2008 for a world record price (€793,850). Other early highlights include the silver armillary sphere in the Yves Saint Laurent sale (€781,000) and the silver simple microscope by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 2009 (£313,250). James’ strong personal interest in Geology has resulted in the growth of Natural History sales over the years culminating in the world record price for a Dinosaur with STAN in October 2020 ($31,847,500). With the advent of online sales, he was the first to launch dedicated history of science and technology sales, in June 2013 an Apple-1 personal computer sold for $387,750 in the sale First Bytes: Iconic Technology from the Twentieth Century, followed by a world record price for an enigma machine in November 2014 Code Breakers: Enigmas and Other Cipher Machines for $365,000. Recent sales of note include a record price for a meteorite at auction (£525,000) in the Exceptional sale 8 July 2021 and a world record for a dinosaur skull (£500,000) in 12-26 October 2021 online auction.

A graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, James speaks English and French; he previously worked for a UK science museum and has sat on the committee of the Scientific Instrument Society.