First handbag made from dinosaur cells fails to sell at auction

Culture

Illustrative image. Credits: Sora Shimazaki / Pexels

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Paris - A leather handbag reconstructed from “Tyrannosaurus rex” cells failed to sell at auction in Paris on Thursday. The proposed price was significantly lower than its estimate, according to Drouot, the auction house where the sale took place.

With a starting price of 100,000 euros from the auction house Giquello, this “unique piece” did not exceed 150,000 euros during the sale, despite being valued at 300,000 euros.

Unveiled in Amsterdam a few months ago, the handbag was created from collagen remnants discovered in the femur of a T-Rex in Montana, US, 25 years ago.

This photo shows the first “T-Rex leather” handbag presented before its auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, estimated between 300,000 and 500,000 euros. Credits: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP.

“In recent years, we have acquired techniques and biotechnologies that allow us to instruct a cell culture to build, so to speak, authentic T-Rex skin in the laboratory,” Iacopo Briano, a palaeontology expert associated with the sale, recently told AFP.

The Drouot auction house described it as “an unprecedented object in the history of luxury” and a “scientific feat” that enables the creation of leather “without any reliance on animal husbandry,” according to a statement.

“Cellular leather opens up a new avenue: one of exclusivity that is no longer based on extraction or intensive farming,” it adds.

According to Briano, this material is different from vegan leather, which is made from plastic. “Here, we start with a cell culture, so it is 100 percent skin. At the same time, it comes from an animal that disappeared 67 million years ago!” he stated.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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