THE ISSUES Dinosaurs
SG$20 Moroccan trilobite [an extinct marine arthropod] fossil as a birthday giſt,’ he says. ‘It forced me to contemplate deep time: how different the world must have been then and how it has changed so much since. All of this aroused in me a sense of wonder about the ancient world.’ Chu kept buying, and says he’s ‘really for- tunate to have an understanding wife who lets me… display skulls in the house’. He also regularly loans items to museums and runs a ‘traveling museum’ to bring fossils into the lives of more people. Hatton says that most collectors of fossils
also want to share their love of dinosaurs with other people. ‘Once we start getting into full dinosaurs, those tend to be loaned or donated to museums. Going back to what you get out of the purchase beyond owning the object – a big part of the motivation is sharing things with the public.
‘A lot of the people that I deal with re- member their first time going into the Natu- ral History Museum, and being blown away by the T. rex or whatever they saw,’ she adds. ‘It’s that nostalgia for that sense of wonder and excitement, and that they get to be the person who then gets to give that giſt to an- other kid. They [owners] are like, “Wow. I own the biggest stegosaurus in the world, or the only juvenile ceratosaurus. I get to own that, but I also get to know that I have placed that in a public space and all these kids who come in with their grandparents get to see it and get that feeling that I had.” ‘That’s an awesome giſt that most people
don’t get to give. If you are someone of means, you can buy art, and you can buy a beautiful home, and you can buy a lot of experiences. But having the ability to have an impact on other people’s emotions is just next level.’
G
riffin is someone with the means to do just that. With an estimated $48 billion fortune, he is the
32nd-richest person on the planet. He has loaned Apex to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on New York’s Upper West Side, a moderate walk through Central Park from his $238 million pent- house apartment in the 220 Central Park South tower. The fossil – the largest stegosaurus skele-
ton ever discovered – is on public display for a minimum of four years. Griffin, 56, also donated additional funds to support the in- stallation and for scientific and educational research into the dinosaur. It is displayed in a new entrance named the Kenneth C Grif- fin Exploration Atrium. Sean Decatur, the AMNH’s president, is thrilled to have Apex on view and ‘grateful to Ken Griffin for his commitment to sharing
The anonymous buyer’s plans for the Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton remain a mystery
MATTHEW SHERMAN, COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S, ALAMY
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