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    World’s Priciest Dinosaur Fossil Comes to Museum of Natural History

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    The billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, who bought the stegosaurus fossil for $44.6 million, is loaning it to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for four years.The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction, a stegosaurus that the billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin bought over the summer for $44.6 million, has a new home: the American Museum of Natural History in New York.The museum announced on Thursday that it would be the first institution to exhibit the sought-after stegosaurus, as part of a four-year loan from Griffin.“It’s one of the dinosaurs that every kid knows how to draw,” Sean M. Decatur, the museum’s president, said in an interview this week before the dinosaur was revealed. “This is a unique opportunity to have something that simultaneously, I think, really resonates in the public imagination about dinosaurs, but also from a research standpoint, is really a pretty special specimen to understand.”The mounted stegosaurus was revealed from behind a billowing beige curtain on Thursday morning to reporters, photographers, museum employees and a group of elementary school children. It is scheduled to go on view to the public on Sunday after it is fully prepared for exhibition.The Sotheby’s sale of the unusually complete specimen — which is nicknamed Apex — shattered records in the booming fossil market. And it established a new king of the dinosaur world, at least in the eyes of the auction market: The stegosaurus dethroned the Tyrannosaurus rex, the previous record-holder.But the auction also stoked fears among academic paleontologists that museums and universities were being priced out of their research field by well-heeled private collectors. After purchasing the stegosaurus, Griffin, the founder and chief executive of the hedge fund Citadel, said he intended to lend the specimen to an American institution so it would be available to scientists and the public.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Art Collector Who Bought a $6 Million Banana Offers to Buy 100,000 More

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      The vendor who sold the banana only received a quarter for the fruit. Now the buyer of the conceptual work has offered his fruit stand a bigger payday.A week after a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought an artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for $6.2 million at auction, the man, Justin Sun, announced a grand gesture on X. He said he planned on purchasing 100,000 bananas — or $25,000 worth of the produce — from the Manhattan stand where the original fruit was sold for 25 cents.But at the fruit stand at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, outside the doors of the Sotheby’s auction house where the conceptual artwork was sold, the offer landed with a thud against the realities of the life of a New York City street vendor.It would cost thousands of dollars to procure that many bananas from a Bronx wholesale market, said Shah Alam, the 74-year-old employee from Bangladesh who sold the original banana used in “Comedian,” an absurdist commentary on the art world by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. And, it wouldn’t be easy to move that many bananas, which come in boxes of about 100.And then there is the math: The net profit from the purchase of 100,000 bananas by Mr. Sun — who once bought an NFT of a pet rock for more than $600,000 — would be about $6,000.“There’s not any profit in selling bananas,” Mr. Alam said.Plus, as an employee who makes $12 an hour during 12-hour shifts, Mr. Alam pointed out that any money would by rights belong to the fruit stand’s owner, not him.Reached by phone, the stand’s owner, Mohammad R. Islam, 53, who goes by Rana, said he would split any profit between himself, Mr. Alam and the six other people he employs at his two fruit stands. No one had contacted him about any such purchase, though, he said.Mr. Islam had learned from a reporter of Mr. Sun’s plans, which also included offering the bananas from Mr. Islam’s stand for free worldwide, to anyone who showed identification, according to his post on X. Mr. Sun — who has also announced plans to eat the original banana during a Friday news conference at a Hong Kong luxury hotel — did not respond to a request for comment.Working in the rain on Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Islam’s brother, Mohammad Alam Badsha (who is not related to Mr. Alam) said he would welcome the bulk purchase. But it would have little tangible impact, Mr. Badsha said, either on the daily life of the fruit vendors, or on the gulf laid bare by the $6.2 million banana and the stand that sold it for a quarter.“It’s definitely an inequality,” Mr. Badsha said in Bengali.He added a Bangladeshi idiom: It was, he said, the difference between heaven and hell.Zachary Small More

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      Who’s Laughing Now? Banana-as-Art Sells for $6.2 Million at Sotheby’s

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      A conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, “Comedian,” is just a fruit-stand banana taped on the wall. But 7 bidders were biting. It went to a crypto entrepreneur. A banana that for years has stirred controversy in the art world sold for $6.2 million with fees at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction on Wednesday night. It became what is arguably the most expensive fruit in the world — though it will likely be tossed in a couple days.The banana is the star of a 2019 conceptual artwork, “Comedian,” by the noted prankster Maurizio Cattelan, which is intended to be duct-taped onto the wall. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions for owners to replace the banana — if they wish — whenever it rots. Five minutes of rapid bidding ended when the Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun placed the winning bid, besting six other rivals, which experts said was a sign that even a struggling market would spend big on spectacle.Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur and art collector, shown in New York City in 2019. He is now the owner of a $6.2 million banana.Steven Ferdman/Getty Images “Returns in the market have been flat or decreasing over the last decade,” said Michael Moses, who tracks the investment potential of artworks for clients. “It’s a fascinating asset because you can get so much joy from it that people are willing to accept lower returns. Joy is not something to be messed with.”Indeed, Sun said in a statement that the Cattelan work “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” Sun, who watched the auction from Hong Kong, added that “in the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Paris Is Rising as an Art Market Hub, With Some Way Left to Go

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      Sotheby’s opened a new salesroom and international collectors are arriving for the inaugural Art Basel Paris fair. But visiting is one thing; buying is another.“This is the Mona Lisa of handbags,” said Aurélie Vassy, Sotheby’s head of handbag and fashion sales in Europe, as she unlocked a glass display case and proudly revealed a battered black leather Birkin.“The first in the world, made for Jane Birkin. It’s the beginning,” said Vassy, pointing out the design features of the bag, specially made by Hermès for the Anglo-French singer and actress in 1984. Three years earlier, Birkin had found herself sitting next to the chief executive of the luxury brand on a flight from Paris to London and had sketched the design on the back of a sick bag.This precious fashion icon, on loan from the collection of the pre-owned luxury dealer Catherine B, was one of the star exhibits at the opening of Sotheby’s new salesroom in the Avenue Matignon district of Paris on Saturday. The auction house will hold Surrealism and modern art sales on Friday, just days after the inaugural edition of the Art Basel Paris fair begins in the newly renovated Grand Palais.Aurélie Vassy, Sotheby’s head of handbag and fashion sales in Europe, with the very first Birkin bag.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe Paris art scene is expanding. After Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, a procession of international gallerists established spaces in the French capital, expecting its underperforming art market to revive at London’s expense.When Art Basel took over the management of Paris’s flagship October fair in 2022, this nurtured hope that the city’s art scene would become a magnet for international collectors. (It ran the fair for a couple of years from a temporary location under the ungainly name “Paris+ par Art Basel” before rebranding for this year’s edition.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Met Museum Hires Its First Head of Provenance Research

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      Lucian Simmons is leaving Sotheby’s to lead the museum’s increased efforts to review its collection, which has recently returned looted artifacts, including dozens last year.As part of its more aggressive restitution investigation efforts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday announced that it had appointed a Sotheby’s executive to the newly created position of head of provenance research.Lucian Simmons will leave Sotheby’s, where he is vice chairman and worldwide head of the restitution department — and senior specialist for the Impressionist and Modern art department — to take on the role of coordinating research efforts across the museum, starting in May.Like museums all over the world, the Met has faced increased scrutiny from law enforcement officials, academics and the news media over the extent to which its collection of more than 1.5 million works includes looted artifacts. In recent years, for example, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has seized dozens of antiquities from the museum to return them to countries including Turkey, Egypt and Italy.In a telephone interview, Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive, said the volume of materials an auction house must review gave Simmons the background necessary to take on a review of the Met’s encyclopedic collection.“He has a vast amount of experience understanding the level of research you need to apply and what timelines you need to set to get to a result,” Hollein said. “He probably had to deal with more issues at Sotheby’s than have many other institutions. You have to vet and scrutinize a huge number of objects. He’s someone who understands the theory but who also has a very practical attitude.”The Met last year announced a major new effort to review its holdings and policies with a view toward returning items it finds to have problematic histories.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More