Sotheby’s Puts a Record Estimate on a T. rex Named “Gus”
A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil with museum-level rarity is heading to Sotheby’s New York with a price tag that could reset the market for natural history. “Gus,” a 67-million-year-old specimen, will lead the auction house’s Natural History Auction on July 14 with an estimate of $20 million to $30 million — the highest ever assigned to a dinosaur skeleton.
Sotheby’s describes the fossil as one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons ever discovered, and among the finest in private hands. The mounted skeleton measures about 38 feet long and rises roughly 12.5 feet tall. It contains 183 fossil bone elements and is approximately 63 percent complete, with some bones showing healed fractures and bite marks.
The specimen was excavated in Harding County, South Dakota, on land owned by the late rancher Gary “Gus” Licking. After years of finding small bone and tooth fragments across his 6,500-acre property, Licking suspected something larger lay beneath the surface. He brought in Thomas Heitkamp and his team at Theropoda Expeditions, who excavated the fossil over three summers between 2021 and 2023. Licking died a year into the project, and the specimen was later named for him.
Sotheby’s will display “Gus” at the Breuer building from July 1 to 14 before the sale. The fossil enters a market that has grown markedly more competitive in recent years. “Stan” sold for $31.8 million at Christie’s in 2020, while Sotheby’s set the current dinosaur record in 2024 when “Apex,” a Stegosaurus, brought $44 million. A juvenile Ceratosaurus also fetched $30.5 million at Sotheby’s last year, far above its estimate.
For Sotheby’s, “Gus” is not simply a spectacle. It is a test of how far the appetite for scientifically significant fossils can still stretch when rarity, condition, and provenance align.
