Mammoth goes under the hammer in Billingshurst

Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst will sell a complete woolly mammoth skeleton in November, but with a reserve price of £150,000, the Ice Age creature won’t come cheap.

The skeleton, which is 3.5m tall and 5.5m long, has come from a collection in eastern Europe and has been assembled for the first time for the purpose of the sale - but it is still looking for a name.

Curator of the sale Errol Fuller said: “Odd mammoth bones and teeth turn up all across Russia, Europe and even Britain, but a complete skeleton with tusks is a very unusual thing.

“The mammoth is one of the iconic prehistoric animals, a bit like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and saber-toothed tiger.

“We are very pleased to have it, we seem to be developing a reputation for selling these sort of things.”

Last year, the County Times reported that the auction house sold the skeleton of the dinosaur Diplodocus, which was nicknamed Misty, to the Natural History Museum of Denmark for £483,100.

The woolly mammoth, which is believed to have weighed up to six tonnes in its lifetime, is expected to sell for between £150,000 and £250,000.

Mr Fuller said: “Anyone thinking of buying it would obviously have a large house or barn to put it in.

“If a museum wants one and has the room and the funds, it would be a wonderful exhibit for them.

“It could sell for anything if two people want it. There are several movie stars into this kind of thing, like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, but I don’t suppose they have a mammoth!”

He added that a ‘great deal’ of work has gone into preparing the skeleton, which was discovered decades ago but has never been put together.

Woolly mammoths roamed the Earth alongside early humans, but became extinct around 10,000 years ago.

Summers Place has appealed for local residents to send in name suggestions for the mammoth, while entrants aged under 14 will have the chance to win a prize.

You can send suggestions by email to [email protected]

Or send names on a postcard to Mammoth, Summers Place Auctions, The Walled Garden, Stane Street, Billingshurst, West Sussex, RH14 9AB.

The auction takes place on Wednesday November 26.