67 A Dinosaur Named Sue

Just what is the value of a dinosaur fossil? It is one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever discovered, the price can be in the millions. And whose is it to buy and sell? This is a complicated question: consider the case of, and Sue—named for its discoverer, Susan Hendrickson—was unearthed on a South Dakota ranch in 1990. The head of the discovery team, Pete larson from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, presented ranch owner Maurice Williams with a check for $5,000 and carried the skeleton away. Almost immediately however, Williams a later claimed that the legal sale had ensued, since Williams a Marine had owned the fossil, sold it without been discovered.

Following several years of bitter legal wrangles, Williams ultimately earned the right of sorts to the skeleton (Larson earned himself a felony conviction), But then a second rare fossil should began, and he earned himself a felony conviction), But then a second access to it, or be sold to a private collector.

In 1997, Sue was finally sold at auction. In slightly over an hour, the original $5,000 asking price quickly escalated to $7.6 million and Sue was bought by Chicago’s Field Museum, which vowed to have the fossil on display within two years. As for Maurice Williams, he received the bulk of the proceed—tax free, because of his trust arrangement with the government.

67 名为苏的恐龙

恐龙化石的价值究竟是什么？作为迄今发现的最完整的霸王龙骨架之一，它的价格可达数百万美元。而谁有权买卖它呢？这是个复杂的问题：以“苏”为例——它以发现者苏珊·亨德里克森的名字命名，1990年在南达科他州的一个牧场被发掘。发掘队负责人、来自布莱克山地质研究所的皮特·拉森给了牧场主莫里斯·威廉姆斯一张5000美元的支票，然后带走了骨架。然而几乎立刻，威廉姆斯（一名海军陆战队队员）后来声称合法交易并未达成，因为他拥有这块化石，却在未被发现的情况下被卖掉了。

经过数年激烈的法律纠纷，威廉姆斯最终获得了对骨架的某种所有权（拉森则被判重罪），但随后又出现了第二块稀有化石的问题，他再次被判重罪，之后可以接触骨架，或将其卖给私人收藏家。

1997年，苏最终被拍卖。在一个多小时内，最初5000美元的起拍价迅速飙升至760万美元，苏被芝加哥菲尔德博物馆买下，该博物馆承诺在两年内展出这块化石。至于莫里斯·威廉姆斯，他获得了大部分收益——由于他与政府的信托安排，这些收益是免税的。