FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Josh Chait
310.285.0182
josh@chait.com

CHAIT GALLERY HOLDS TITLE FOR SECOND-HIGHEST PRICE PAID FOR FOSSIL AT AUCTION EVER!!

View Sale

Rare fossils conjure bidding war as museums and private collectors vie for a prized piece of history

Lot 163

Beverly Hills, CA May,22 2005 - One of the most complete and well-preserved specimens in recorded history of “the Great American Fossil”-an extremely rare saber-toothed tiger skull from the La Brea Formation sold at auction today (Sunday, May 22, 2005) for an astounding $282,000.00. This lofty price tag is second only to the 1997 sale at auction of Sue, the 60 million year-old fossil of a Tyrannosaurus Rex which sold for 8.3 million dollars. The highly-successful Natural History sale was held at the I.M. Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA, in association with Natural History specialist David Herskowitz. Over two hundred in room, absentee, phone and internet bidders from around the world participated in the 200-plus lot sale. The highlights to the auction was preceded by the saber-toothed tiger skull, which is estimated to be between twelve to twenty thousand years old and roamed throughout North America during the last Ice Age. Bids reached lofty heights for this specimen, including a $273,700.00 bid on EBay. Fossils from the La Brea Formation are seldom seen for sale due to their rarity and the fact that the sites have been closed to private collecting for nearly 50 years. Recent expressed disappointment and concern of a number of paleontologists and museum officials were founded today as this magnificent fossil fell into the hands of a private collector.

Ripley’s Believe It… Or Not™, among many other interested parties bid furiously for the important narwhal skull, which eventually sold for an impressive $99,875.00 to a private collector. The narwhal is the rarest species of whale in the oceans today, and according to Mr. Herskowitz, “less than seven specimens of narwhals in the world are known to have both tusks, [like this one] measuring over seven feet in length.” Consequently, the following two lots of narwhal tusks sold for $17,625.00 and $8,813.00.

Bidder paddles rose furiously for the rare, extremely large and complete tusk of a Wooly mammoth, which eventually sold for $76,375.00, the highest recorded sale for a Wooly Mammoth tusk. The tusk measured an uncommon 8 ˝ feet in length along its curves, and was lauded by the experts due to its completeness and the fact that there was only minor restoration done on the piece. A smaller Wooly mammoth tusk measuring 50 ˝ inches along the outside curve sold for $12,925.00.

Considered to be among the rarest substances on Earth, lunar specimens are highly sought-after by collectors and museums. The auction offered an unprecedented 1.1 gram piece of the moon that boasted of being the only specimen found that is off-white and therefore believed to be from the crust of the ancient lunar highlands. This specimen sold for $14,100. Another out of this world specimen that generated interest was the exotic fragment of the planet Mars, which sold for $3,818.00.

Weighing in at a whopping 14.55 troy ounces, the largest known naturally-formed platinum nugget to be discovered in the past ten years sold today for $58,750.00.

Museum quality specimens, minerals, meteorites, fossils and dinosauria were among the other items featured at Sunday’s auction, which totaled nearly one million dollars in sales. For more information about the auction please call 310 285 0182.