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Author Williams, Paige, 1966- author.

Title The dinosaur artist : obsession, betrayal, and the quest for Earth's ultimate trophy / Paige Williams.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Hachette Books, [2018]
©2018

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  560 WILLIAMS    Check Shelf
 Bristol, Main Library - Non Fiction  560.75 WILLIAMS    Check Shelf
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  560.75 WIL    Check Shelf
 Farmington, Main Library - Adult Department  560.7 WIL    Check Shelf
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - Adult Department  560.75 WILLIAMS    Check Shelf
 Granby, Main Library - Adult  560.75 WIL    Check Shelf
 Mansfield, Main Library - Adult Nonfiction  560.75 WILLIAMS    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  560.75 WIL    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  560.75 WIL    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  567.9 WILLIAMS    Check Shelf

Edition First edition.
Description xxii, 410 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-381) and index.
Contents Introduction : origins -- Part I -- "Superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton" -- Land O' Lakes -- Garcia, king of the Ice Age -- Dive -- Deal -- Tucson -- Big game -- Middleman in Japan -- Hollywood headhunters -- Part II -- The warrior and the explorer -- The Flaming Cliffs -- Market conditions -- "Go Gobi" -- The ghost of Mary Anning -- The last dinosaur -- The President's predicament -- United States of America v. One Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton -- Part III -- Raid! -- Verdict -- Tarbomania -- Petersburg low -- The dinosaur bus -- Epilogue.
Summary "In 2012, a New York auction catalogue made an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to T. rex, the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in Manhattan had been unearthed in Mongolia, some 6,000 miles away. At 8 feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and the final gavel signaled a winning bid of well over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a thirty-eight-year-old Floridian, was the man who had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A onetime swimmer who spent his teenage years searching for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils generated a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens, to clients ranging from natural history museums to avid private collectors like actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a problem. This time, facing financial strain, had Prokopi gone too far? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. As an international custody battle ensued, fueled by geopolitics, Prokopi watched as his own world unraveled. In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a wildly popular, yet sometimes murky, risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, ... writer Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past."--Dust jacket.
Subject Prokopi, Eric.
Prokopi, Eric.
Tyrannosaurus bataar.
Fossils -- Collection and preservation -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Fossils -- Collection and preservation -- Mongolia.
Fossils -- Collectors and collecting -- Florida.
Tyrannosaurus -- Mongolia.
Fossils -- Collection and preservation. (OCoLC)fst00933168
Tyrannosaurus. (OCoLC)fst01160096
Mongolia. (OCoLC)fst01208752
HISTORY / Expeditions & Discoveries.
SCIENCE / Paleontology.
TRUE CRIME / Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions.
Fossils -- Collection and preservation.
Fossils -- Collection and preservation -- Mongolia.
Tyrannosaurus.
ISBN 9780316382533 (hardcover)
0316382531 (hardcover)
9780316382502 (electronic book)
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