Christie's has brought the dinosaur auction show to London

Scientists have been priced out by billionaires in the global market for prehistoric fossils.

- John Gapper

Those visiting Christie's in London this week have been treated to an unusual spectacle. For the first time since it moved to its King Street address in 1824, the auction house's gallery is not showcasing paintings or sculptures but dinosaurs: three prehistoric skeletons that it estimates are worth up to £13 million (S$22.27 million).

The skeletons of a stegosaurus and an adult and young allosaurus date back about 150 million years and were excavated and reconstructed by the seller, the Swiss-German company Interprospekt.

"It's so exciting. This was my favourite dinosaur as a kid," says Christie's head of natural history James Hyslop of the spiked-tail allosaurus pair.

He has reason to be pleased. The rivalry between Sotheby's and Christie's over the sale of dinosaurs is as fierce as past battles between the creatures themselves.

Sotheby's drew blood in New York in July by selling a stegosaurus for US$44 million (S$59 million) to the billionaire financier Ken Griffin, and Christie's is striking back with this sale.