"Sue" Auction Update

Betty Cunningham

I just got off the phone with [Sotheby's] press release office, and not only did they deny any knowledge of having the auction in the spring as I had previously posted, they wanted to know who told me that and denied any such thing had been said by Sotheby's. So I've sent them a copy of my e-mail to this list from November 18th which was a direct quote from someone in their own offices. If you want to see a copy of this, go to the Dinosaur mailing list archives for Nov 96. [Also see "Bones of disputed dinosaur to be auctioned off," here on DOL, where they told the New York Times the same thing -- ed.]

Other than that, this PR person says that they've not set any date for Sue's auction, [not to] expect it until the fall, it will probably be announced again in the New York Times (but I wouldn't count on it), and that the rumors that the delay is caused by them trying to finish prepping "Sue" is false. She insisted that "Sue" is going to auction in exactly the condition that they received her (which, as I posted earlier, "They expect the skull to be on display (which was prepared before the >FBI< nonsense hit) and maybe some other unjacketed bones, but they are not entirely sure at this time what all will be in the exhibit.")

She didn't know whether new information on Sue would be posted on the Sotheby's website as that's a different department from the PR department (!).