Fearsome predators perform well at Heritage Auction

6 June 2010 - by ArtfixDaily Staff

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LaBrea Tar Pits Dire Wolf skull sold for $31,070 at Heritage Auction Galleries' June 6 sale in Beverly Hills.

Multi-million-year-old treasures extracted from exotic locales worldwide found eager buyers at Heritage Auction Galleries Beverly Hills’ June 6 sale of Natural History. The $1.6 million auction featured spectacular gems and mineral specimens, gold and precious metals, rare dinosauria and fossils, and meteorites.

The top lot of the day was an exceptional specimen of native gold in a quartz matrix nearly eight-inches long, mined from the famous Eagle’s Nest Mine in Placerville, Calif. which fetched $167,300 (prices include buyer’s premium).

Scene-stealers in the 260-lot sale included the remains of a few remarkable pre-historic creatures: A LaBrea Tar Pits Dire Wolf skull, from an unlucky fellow who fell into the Wilshire/Hauser pit back in the Ice Age, went for $31,070; a giant Saber-toothed Cat skull brought $26,290; and a fossilized fish skull found in Kansas sold for $19,419 – the ferocious fish bares 2-inch teeth and was likely a 20-foot long underwater predator.

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