And you collect what!?

A Tarbosaurus skull expected to be sold at the London international fine art fair.

"Dinosaur heads, antiques and Victorian curios to feature in London art fair"

International fine art fair to feature skull of Tyrannosaurus for sale, as well as paintings and ceramic ornaments

by

Mark Brown

June 2nd, 2010

guardian.co.uk

It is not the most obvious exhibit for a fine art and antique fair but it is, unquestionably, old. About 65m years old, give or take.

Visitors to this year's London international fine art fair, which opens to the public on Friday will have the chance, among the displays of paintings, furniture and ceramics, to also buy the strikingly impressive head, including its steak knife-serrated teeth, of a Tarbosaurus bataar –a Tyrannosaurus closely related to the T-rex.

From Victorian times onwards, dinosaur fossil collecting has always been popular but there has been a recent trend of the rich and famous seeking out the big boys. Brad Pitt is a collector and Nicolas Cage reportedly outbid Leonardo DiCaprio in an auction for a Tyrannosaurus head similar to the one for sale.

The head will set you back about £125,000, and is being sold by the Dorset-based fossil dealer Chris Moore, who acquired it from central Asia, or more accurately, acquired the rock it was in.

"We bought a large slab of sandstone with bones sticking out of it and brought it back to our workshop in Charmouth. Gradually, over four or five months, we dug away to reveal what was in there. You can never tell what you're going to find, you have an idea but you never know how good or how complete its going to be.

"This is incredible though. There's probably six to eight other ones which are known about and museums have got those."

Moore admitted some of the antique stalls were a bit sniffy about him being at the fair but, standing next to an Ankylosaurus head with a sabre-toothed cat skull behind him, he said: "It is becoming more fashionable because they are beautiful things.

"Plus, how dramatic is it going to be to come in to somebody's house and be presented with that [pointing to the Tarbosaurus]."

There is an argument that dinosaur heads of this quality should be in museums, but Moore contends "as long as it's not something that is unique or rare or needs to be studied, anything that is new or different we always make sure it goes to a museum."

Moore got into fossil-hunting as a six-year-old boy in Manchester, encouraged by an uncle, a professor of palaeontology, before building up his dealership.

The fair is in its 37th year and one of the biggest and longest established of its kind, with 150 antique dealers converging on Kensington Olympia from 4-13 June. This year, visitors will also be able to see, but not buy, works of art from Bryan Ferry's collection, which include paintings by artists including Augustus John, John Nash, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, William Sickert and Wyndham Lewis.