T. rex leather bag to auction in Paris for over $500,000

A handbag made from Tyrannosaurus rex cells will be auctioned on Thursday by Paris auction house Giquello, with an estimate exceeding US$500,000. The material was created from collagen traces extracted from a T. rex femur discovered in Montana 25 years ago. The bag was first unveiled in Amsterdam in spring 2024. Iacopo Briano, a palaeontology expert associated with the sale, explained that biotechnologies were used to instruct a cell culture to produce genuine T. rex skin in the laboratory. The auction house Drouot, where the sale will take place at 6pm, described the item as "an object without precedent in the history of luxury" and a "scientific feat" that enables leather production without animal rearing. Briano noted that unlike vegan leather, which is mostly plastic, this material is 100% skin derived from a cell culture, originating from an animal extinct for 67 million years.