Prior to the auction, the price was estimated to land at 1.5 million euros, around 15 million kronor.
But the Triceratops skeleton thus became over four times as expensive.
- It is a record for Europe, said auctioneer Alexandre Giquello afterwards.
An anonymous American collector bought the skeleton for 6.65 million euros.
- The buyer is overjoyed at the thought of owning an item of this dignity, says Djuan Rivers, a representative of the buyer.
66 million years old
The Triceratops skeleton is called "Big John", is about eight meters long and 66 million years old.
It was found in South Dakota in 2014 and flown to Italy where it was put together by experts.
The auction house Drouot, which handles the sales, has previously sold an allosaurus and a diplodocus 2018. They were sold for 1.4 million euros each.
Last year, a second allosaurus was sold for three million euros.