No buyer for handbag made from alleged T-Rex leather: Auction in Paris cancelled

The simple black handbag was first presented in spring 2025 in Amsterdam. Paleontologist Iacopo Briano, who was involved in the auction, explained that in recent years techniques had been developed to grow real T-Rex skin in the laboratory from a cell culture. "In recent years, it has been possible to develop techniques, biotechnologies, with which one can get a cell culture to develop real T-Rex skin in the laboratory," he said. Therefore, there is now a bag "made from the skin of an animal that went extinct 67 million years ago."

Scientific criticism of the material

US paleontologist Mary Schweitzer disputed the classification of the material as T-Rex leather. "Kollagen sei ein generisches Molekül, das bei vielen Tieren vorkomme," said Schweitzer. In her view, this means that there is no proof that the material is actually from a Tyrannosaurus.

Drouot also pointed out that the underlying scientific procedure opened up the possibility of manufacturing leather bags without having to kill animals for them. "Zudem eröffne das zugrundeliegende wissenschaftliche Verfahren die Möglichkeit, Ledertaschen herzustellen, ohne dafür Tiere töten zu müssen," the auction house announced. Drouot initially did not disclose how many interested parties actually participated in the auction in Paris.

Briano spoke of a process in which cells reconstructed from dinosaur material were further processed into leather in a laboratory environment. Independent scientific publications documenting the procedure in detail were not available as of Thursday evening.

Background on the discovery of the bone

The location where the bone was found, Montana in the northwestern United States, has long been considered one of the most productive regions for Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. Whether the piece offered in Paris actually traces back to the find made a quarter of a century ago was not substantiated in detail by Drouot.

The auction in Paris is part of a series of spectacular objects that have been measured against high expectations in recent months. In the current case as well, the result fell short of the auction house's hopes. Drouot left open what will now happen to the object.

Outlook and open questions

According to Drouot, the T-Rex handbag is the first fashion item ever made from prehistoric material. Regardless of the outcome of the auction, the debate over the scientific basis of the material is likely to continue.

Schweitzer, who is among the best-known experts on the preservation of proteins in dinosaur fossils, has emphasized repeatedly in the past that collagen alone does not allow a clear assignment to a particular animal species. This leaves open the question of whether the bag actually contains Tyrannosaurus leather or whether it is material from another animal species, including one that lives today.

The Drouot auction house is one of the oldest and most renowned auction houses in France and has repeatedly attracted attention with unusual objects in the past. A sale price of 300,000 euros would have been unusually high for a single accessory in this segment.