Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

File photo of four mammoths that were for sale at another auction last month. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/PA Images

10,000-year-old skeleton of woolly mammoth sells for over €500,000 at auction

The giant skeleton was bought by the chief executive of a French waterproofing company whose logo is of the prehistoric mammal.

THE NEARLY INTACT skeleton of a woolly mammoth that lived at least 10,000 years ago was sold at auction for more than €500,000 in the southeastern French city of Lyon.

The giant skeleton – mounted in a forward walking position with its enormous curved tusks with tones of caramel and ivory facing slightly downward – was bought by the chief executive of a French waterproofing company whose logo is of the prehistoric mammal.

“We are going to display it in the lobby of our firm,” said Pierre-Etienne Bindschedler, the CEO of Soprema.

“I think we have enough room.”

Bindschedler bought the piece for €548,250 at the Aguttes auction house.

One of the largest specimens ever found, the mammoth skeleton measures a little over three metres (10 feet) in height and was estimated to sell for at least €450,000 because of its “fine condition”, remarkable because it retained 80% of its original bones.

Experts believe the animal weighed about 1,400 kilos.

The skeleton, unearthed about 10 years ago in northwest Siberia, belonged to a hunter who had preserved the remains at his home.

Woolly mammoths were once among the most common herbivores in North America and Siberia, but came under threat from increased hunting pressure and a warming climate.

They disappeared from the Earth 3,700 years ago.

Mammoth remains are frequently discovered in Siberia and Russia’s extreme northern regions where they are preserved in the frozen earth.

The first complete mammoth skeleton to be sold at auction in France garnered €150,000 in 2006.

Another was sold in October 2012 in Paris for €240,750 at an auction organised by Sotheby’s.

© AFP 2017

Read: San Francisco Aquatic Park closed to swimmers after two sea lions attacks

Read: Here are some of this year’s best nature photos from around the world

Author
View 11 comments
Close
11 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute BlueSkyThinking
    Favourite BlueSkyThinking
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 7:27 PM

    Interesting fact, Newgrange was already 1,500 years old when the last of the mammoths died out.

    98
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerald Kelleher
    Favourite Gerald Kelleher
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 8:01 PM

    @BlueSkyThinking: The people who built Newgrange and the other neolithic monuments on this island were so cool. For instance the roofbox only works for the Solstice (Newgrange) but not for the Equinox (Knowth) as the seasonal movement of the Sun is too rapid on the Equinox whereas is slows right down to zero at the Solstice.

    They had to find just the right distance between the monument and a distant hill where the Sun appears otherwise the alignment would be impossible if the two hills were too close and the spectacle would be lost if they were too distant. I came to understand this as there is another alignment on the coast where the rocks for Newgrange were quarried but difficult to get to -

    https://imgur.com/8wx48U4

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Hill
    Favourite Joe Hill
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 8:05 PM

    You would have to wonder what a new one would fetch!

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Greased Up Deaf Guy
    Favourite Greased Up Deaf Guy
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 6:59 PM

    Is this some sort of joke? The Wooly mammoth skeleton in this picture is clearly 10,006 years old..

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean
    Favourite Sean
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 7:04 PM

    @Greased Up Deaf Guy: you’re obviously counting from the date the mammoth was born which is why your figure is different.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Caoimhghín Ó Faoleán
    Favourite Caoimhghín Ó Faoleán
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 8:05 PM

    Bought by th Vatican to be warehoused for eternity as it contradicts everything they believe in

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Davy Boy
    Favourite Davy Boy
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 7:59 PM

    I hate to have to wrap that up for Christmas

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bob McTanned
    Favourite Bob McTanned
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 7:30 PM

    About as old as Tony Daly’s vacuous muses

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Myles Kehoe
    Favourite Myles Kehoe
    Report
    Dec 16th 2017, 8:35 PM

    No it doesn’t.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Griffin
    Favourite Tommy Griffin
    Report
    Dec 17th 2017, 3:11 AM

    Have two out the back, offers please

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick J. O'Rourke
    Favourite Patrick J. O'Rourke
    Report
    Dec 17th 2017, 12:09 PM

    Sounds like a lot of money considering there are apparently many to be recovered from the freezer in several locations. I was offered some mammoth tusk material for making things like knife handles etc for reasonable money considering what it is. They are digging them out all the time but I suppose a complete skeleton would be a different job. I’m just waiting to see them in zoos once the Chinese have done science in practice.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel