The Sotheby's auction house held an auction in New York that could be considered atypical. Instead of cars, real estate, or works of art, one of the lots featured a Stegosaurus skeleton in an impressively well-preserved state.
Nicknamed “Apex,” the fossil—which measures 3.4 meters high and 8.2 meters long—was previously valued at between US$4 million and US$6 million. However, the rarity was auctioned off for US$44.6 million, exceeding estimates by more than 11 times and setting a new record for dinosaur fossils sold at auction.
Ken Griffin , legendary investor and founder of the hedge fund Citadel , was the buyer of Apex, according to the British newspaper Financial Times . Although the auction was officially anonymous, a person familiar with Griffin's plans confirmed the purchase and said he intends to put it on display in a museum in the United States. "Apex was born in America and will stay in America," Griffin told the auction house, as quoted in a press release about the sale.
This is not the first time the investor has been involved with the Jurassic period. In 2018, he donated US$16.5 million to the Field Museum in Chicago to fund the display of a replica of the largest dinosaur ever discovered, the titanosaur.
Who is Ken Griffin?
Interested in finance from a young age, Ken began investing in 1986 in his dorm room at Harvard. Less than a year later, he borrowed $200,000 from his grandmother and friends and launched a small hedge fund that used emerging quantitative analytics to inform investment decisions.
With this initiative, Griffin caught the attention of Frank C. Meyer, co-founder of Glenwood Partners, who invested US$1 million in the student. In twelve months, he delivered a 70% return. Thus, in 1990, a year after graduating, he raised new funds from other major investors in the market, totaling US$4.2 million, and decided to found Citadel.
With his hedge fund firm, Griffin theorized that extraordinary individuals, equipped with advanced quantitative analytics and powerful software, could access unique opportunities in capital markets around the world. The business grew very quickly. In eight years, Citadel surpassed the US$1 billion mark.
In 2020, the investor joined partners to found Citadel Securities, a company that operates primarily as a market maker – buying and selling securities to ensure there is supply and demand.
Currently, Citadel is known worldwide, has 2,500 employees and US$63 billion under management, being recognized as one of the most profitable funds in the market. At the same time, Citadel Securities is responsible for trading 1 in every 5 stocks on the American market.
In 2022, Citadel's profit reached a record US$16 billion, and in 2023, the figure increased by 15.3%, performing well above the market as a whole.
In addition to being an investor, Griffin is also known for his philanthropy. He has donated over US$2 billion to promote initiatives in education, opportunity, and health sciences.
Other fossil auctions
The first dinosaur to be sold at auction was "Sue," a Tyrannosaurus rex, in 1997, also by Sotheby's. The fossil fetched US$8.4 million and is on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.
In addition to this event, "Stan," a male Tyrannosaurus rex, was sold for US$31.8 million at Christie's in 2020 to the Abu Dhabi government, with the intention of being part of the exhibition at a new museum in the United Arab Emirates.
