Post by Azurerana on Apr 16, 2007 12:36:48 GMT -5
Christie's auctions prehistoric objects
By MARIE-LAURE COMBES
PARIS
For sale: a 15,000-year-old Siberian mammoth skeleton.
On Monday, Christie's auction house in Paris, which usually sells fine art and furniture, is hosting an unusual auction of paleontological curiosities, including several prehistoric mammals.
Skeletons of a 10,000-year-old, 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros and a 7.5-foot-high cave bear are also going under the hammer. The skeletons are currently owned by a private collector, but buyers may include museums or artists, said Christie's spokeswoman Capucine Milliot.
The auction is not to all paleontologists' liking. Pascal Tassy, professor at Paris' Natural History Museum, has decried the selling off of specimens that could be useful to science.
MORE
By MARIE-LAURE COMBES
PARIS
For sale: a 15,000-year-old Siberian mammoth skeleton.
On Monday, Christie's auction house in Paris, which usually sells fine art and furniture, is hosting an unusual auction of paleontological curiosities, including several prehistoric mammals.
Skeletons of a 10,000-year-old, 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros and a 7.5-foot-high cave bear are also going under the hammer. The skeletons are currently owned by a private collector, but buyers may include museums or artists, said Christie's spokeswoman Capucine Milliot.
The auction is not to all paleontologists' liking. Pascal Tassy, professor at Paris' Natural History Museum, has decried the selling off of specimens that could be useful to science.
MORE
