Lab-grown dinosaur leather bag remains unsold at Paris auction
The "one-of-a-kind" bag was offered at the Drouot auction house by auctioneers Giquello, which had estimated it would sell for between $500,000 and $740,000
A leather bag created from Tyrannosaurus rex cells failed to sell at auction in Paris on Thursday after bids fell short of the expected price range for the experimental item.
The "one-of-a-kind" bag was offered at the Drouot auction house by auctioneers Giquello, which had estimated it would sell for between $500,000 and $740,000 (€300,000 to €500,000). The highest bids reached only about $150,000, says the Strait Times.
The bag was produced using biotechnology and cell-culture techniques designed to grow dinosaur skin in a laboratory setting. According to information released about the item, it was developed from collagen traces found in the femur of a T-Rex discovered 25 years ago in Montana in the United States.
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Its creators described the material as distinct from so-called vegan leather alternatives, which are often made using plastic-based materials, saying the product was "100 per cent skin" from an animal that became extinct about 67 million years ago.
Auctioneers faced challenges in assigning a value to the item because no comparable object had previously been offered for sale. The valuation sought to account both for the rarity of the piece and for the investment involved in creating it.
The bag was first unveiled in Amsterdam in the spring of 2026 before being brought to auction in Paris.
