How to Buy a Dinosaur or a Meteorite

Plus: Philippe Chow leaves the UES today, a Hamptons shoplifter hits Dôen, bunker boats at the Palm Beach Boat Show, the must-read story of the day, and more...

Have you heard how wealthy collectors are buying dinosaur fossils and meteorites in real numbers? It’s very much a thing. As contemporary art has gone mainstream, collectors have started looking for something with the same bragging rights and a little more velvet rope.

Ken Griffin paid $44.6 million for a Stegosaurus. A T. rex named Stan sold for $31.8 million. Leonardo DiCaprio has been around this market for years. Tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd owns a nearly complete T. rex named Samson. Russell Crowe is an avid fossil collector. And Nicolas Cage once bought a Tyrannosaurus skull for about $276,000—until he had to return it after it turned out to be stolen from Mongolia (isn’t that a plot-line from one of his movies?)

Meteorites sit right next to this. Pieces of the moon and Mars have sold for hundreds of thousands and into the millions, including a record-breaking Martian specimen—yes, I said Martian specimen—that brought in over $5 million at auction.

Most of the top end trades go to buyers who never get named at all. So I spoke with Kunal Gandhi, co-founder of BLANCO Art, who works with collectors and scientists to source and place pieces like these to give us a glimpse into how these end up in private collections. Today you’re getting a rare look at the inside world of buying dinosaur fossils and meteorites.

Also in today’s letter, in case you have absolutely no interest in the prehistoric or space: scroll down for Philippe Chow opening its new Fifth Avenue location today after leaving the Upper East Side, a Botoxed-up Hamptons shoplifter hits Dôen, the rise of the bunker boat at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, the must-read story of the day, and more…