Lyon - The largest mammoth skeleton in private hands will come under the hammer in France in December and Aguttes auction house hopes it will raise over R8 millionThe gigantic mammoth measuring 3.40 metres high and 5.30 metres long, is mounted in walking position and on display inside Lyon-Brotteaux railway station. The auction is on December 16. It is estimated to fetch £400 000 to £440 000.
Contemporary with Neanderthal man in the Middle Paleolithic period and Homo sapiens in the Upper Paleolithic period, the mammoth was the largest land mammal of all time. The one here is the world's biggest privately owned specimen.
Sales of this kind are very rare. The first complete mammoth skeleton sold at auction in 2006 was bought for €150 000.
In 2007, Christie’s Paris staged a highly publicised sale devoted to natural history which sparked a debate between scientists, who wanted to retain control of the fossil market, and modern art collectors, who are beginning to take an interest and pushing prices up. A mammoth skeleton was bought for €312 000 by a young contemporary art collector.
Furthermore the Golden Mammoth of Damien Hirst was sold in a charity auction for €11 million in May 2014.
The auction house has previously obtained €1.128 million for a dinosaur skeleton in Lyon last year.