Science on the
 Auction Block

In May, Edvard Munch’s 1895 pastel artwork The Scream sold for $119.9 million, the highest price ever paid for art at auction. Weeks later a 70 million-year-old, 24-foot skeleton of Tyrannosaurus bataara cousin of the T. rex received a bid of $1.05 million at auction. Here, we show how science rarities (and some other famous objects) fared on the block.

■ The Scream

, artwork $119.9 million

■Codex Leicester, scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci $30.8 million

■Stradivarious Violin$15.9 million

■ The Birds of America, first edition book by John James Audubon $11.5 million

■Babe Ruth jersey, circa 1920 $4.4 million

■

Allosaurus

and 
Stegosaurus fossils,
each about 18 feet long $2.7 million

■Ulysses S. Grant’s sword $1.7 million

■Egyptian sarcophagus (circa 1000 B.C.) $120,000

■Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, early drawing $72,000

■Single brown M&M flown on SpaceShipOne $1,400