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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Generous mystery donor makes $8m dino deal possible

A very generous mystery donor has made it possible for the dinosaurs to come to Singapore.

A plan by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research to acquire three near-complete dinosaur skeletons found in Wyoming in the United States almost did not happen, because the museum only managed to raise close to $2 million by the July 31 deadline set by the sellers.

http://www.asiaone.com/A1MEDIA/news/09Sep11/20110907.120141_dino.jpg

The three skeletons, two adults and a baby, belonged to the diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs. Two of them, measuring 24m long, have been nicknamed Prince and Apollo, while the baby, at 12m long, is christened Twinky.

But the sellers, Mr Henry Galiano and Mr Raimund Albersdoerfer of fossil-company Dinosauria International, agreed to extend the deadline even though they had other offers, including ones from a private buyer and auction house Sotheby's, reported The Straits Times.

They wanted to the bones to end up with an academic institution or musuem which would use the fossils for research.

The skeletons will be on display at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, which will open in 2014. It is the new name of the Raffles Museum, and built at a cost of $46 million.

The musuem continues to ask for donations, as another $2 million will be needed to mount the dinosaur exhibition.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

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