Transcripts for CNN Dinosaur 13 20141221 02:13:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
the federal government took the position that he had no authority himself to enter into an agreement with the black hills institute. peter realized that he could not have his fossil back. he was devastated. the judge decided that sue was real estate. sue the fossil was real estate. i first got involved in the dinosaur case, as we call it, sometime late 1992, early 1993. of course they re not going to like what we re doing. that s the nature of what we do. but hopefully in the broader spectrum, people can look at it
everything going on. sotheby s had arranged for one of the people who would normally be taking bids to give me a running detail on the telephone about what was happening at the auction. i was at the institute, too. i could not bear to listen to the phone. it was too much. good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to sotheby s. we have for auction today the fossil of a tyrannosaurus rex known as sue. the property of the united states of america in trust of maurice williams of south dakota. and now let us, if we re all ready, begin the competition for sue the tyrannosaurus rex. and i now begin with a bid of $500,000. $500,000? $600,000? $700,000? at $700,000.
trying to figure out how to proceed. there s a real mass of bones here. some are caught up in concretion, but most appear to be really excellently preserved. and i believe that the tail s going that way and the skull is going this way, but we re just going to have to dig it up and see. collecting fossils is something that s very timely. fossils are discovered because they re weathering out, because the forces of nature, rain, winds, freezing, thawing, even snowfall, have an effect on that fossil.
that is, of course, in chicago, at the renowned field museum. [ applause ] sue s bones went on the auction block at sotheby s auction house in new york. bidding started at $500,000 and ended at $7.6 million, but totaled $8.4 million, after a fee to the auction house. mcdonald s and the walt disney company helped foot the bill, and the field museum of natural history reaps the benefit. south dakotans say she should have stayed here. maurice williams was there in the building, and i glanced up at him, this man, supported by our government, in receiving 7 point whatever million dollars. but that fossil should have stayed in her hometown museum.