Paris Auction Fails to Sell Dinosaur Cell Leather Bag

A leather bag crafted from cells extracted from a Tyrannosaurus rex was put up for auction in Paris on Thursday but failed to attract any buyers, according to the auction house Drouot, which revealed that the bids were significantly lower than anticipated.

Prior estimates suggested that the unique item could fetch over half a million dollars, but the highest offers did not exceed $150,000, as reported by Agence France-Presse.

The bag was unveiled earlier this year in Amsterdam and is made from collagen traces taken from the femur bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in Montana, USA, 25 years ago.

Jacopo Briano, a paleontology expert involved in the sale, explained, "In recent years, we have developed biotechnologies that allow us to cultivate cells to produce genuine Tyrannosaurus rex leather, so to speak, in the laboratory."

Briano emphasized that this material differs from plant-based leather, which is mostly produced from plastic.

He added, "In this case, it is derived from a cell culture, so it is 100% leather. At the same time, it comes from an animal that went extinct 67 million years ago."

Due to the unprecedented nature of the item, Alexander Gicello, who is organizing the auction, stated that they had to "invent a price" that reflects the scale of investment required to produce the bag and its rarity.

Gicello estimated the bag’s value between 300,000 and 500,000 euros, equivalent to approximately $346,000 to $576,000.