Science on the
 Auction Block

Have some money burning a hole in your pocket? You could buy yourself a piece of science history.

By Fangfei Shen
Oct 4, 2012 5:00 AMNov 12, 2019 4:23 AM

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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

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