Ken Griffin of Citadel has bought a complete Stegosaurus skeleton for $44 million

Ken Griffin of Citadel has bought a complete Stegoasurus skeleton for $44.6 million.

Ken Griffin, CEO of the Citadel hedge fund, was the buyer who spent a record $44.6 million to purchase a stegosaurus fossil at auction, according to a person familiar with the acquisition.

The skeleton, nicknamed Apex, is estimated to be 150 million years old and is the largest stegosaurus ever found, as reported by the auction house.

Griffin placed his bid over the phone, outbidding six others in a 15-minute-long bidding war on Wednesday, with a live audience cheering as the price soared.

"Apex was born in America and is going to stay in America," Griffin said after the sale, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Griffin as the buyer.

A regular donor to the Republican Party, Griffin has a net worth of approximately $37.8 billion, according to Forbes.

He plans to consider loaning the specimen to a US institution, the source told AFP.

Griffin has previously collaborated with museums. In 2021, he paid $43.2 million for a first-edition copy of the US Constitution, later loaning it to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

He also helped fund a dinosaur exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum in 2018 with a $16.5 million donation.

Apex measures 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall and 27 feet (8.2 meters) long and is nearly complete, with 254 bones out of an approximate total of 319.

Dinosaur remains have become highly sought-after items in recent years, with paleontologists expressing concern that museums are losing out to private bidders.

The previous record for a dinosaur skeleton sale was set in 2020 when a Tyrannosaurus Rex nicknamed "Stan" sold for $31.8 million.

Apex is 30 percent larger than "Sophie," the most complete stegosaurus ever put on public display, which is housed in the Natural History Museum in London.