A prehistoric Siberian mammoth fetched €312,000 (£212,000) at a dinosaur auction in Paris yesterday, but despite intense interest from bidders the sale was derided by scientists for dragging natural history into the gutter of commerce.

The 15,000-year-old, 4.8m (16ft) mammoth was nicknamed “President”, after Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian head of state. It was the centrepiece of the ground-breaking event organised by Christie’s and was bought by a private European collector.

The dinosaur sale generated €1.13 million, prompting auctioneers to talk of repeating the initiative.

Other star items included the skeleton of a 10,000-year-old rhinoceros, which fetched €120,000: an Ice Age cave bear, which fetched €46,800: an unhatched dinosaur egg, which sold for €1,800; and two dinosaur teeth, which went for €600 and €1,440.

Christie’s also auctioned a bezoar, a type of stone found in the intestines of ruminant animals that was once thought to be a cure for depression and an antidote to poison. These were highly prized in 17th-century England, where a lawsuit over an allegedly fake bezoar gave rise to the doctrine of caveat emptor, which holds that purchasers are responsible for checking the quality of the goods t h a t they buy. The Christie’s bezoar sold for €33,600. If the mammoth attracted media attention, palaeontologists said that they were just as fascinated by the sale of the 40 bird, fish, bat and frog fossils from the renowned private collection of Jean Bouhanna, a retired French vet.

“Ever since I found my first fossil at the foot of the cliffs in Normandy, I’ve always had a passionate interest in these natural marvels,” Mr Bouhanna said. He added that he had decided to sell his fossils, which fetched €285,192, for the benefit of his children. A spokeswoman for Christie’s said: “This auction was more successful than we had imagined. This might be the start of a new discipline at Christie’s.”

However, the sale drew criticism in France. Eric Buffetaut, a palaeontologist with the French National Centre for Scientific Research, said: “The collector looks above all for a beautiful fossil. The scientist wants exact knowledge. The merchant mixes one with the other.” Christian de Muizon, head of the Department of the History of the Earth at the Natural History Museum in Paris, said that auctions could drive up prices beyond the reach of museum curators. But, he added, “You can’t fight against a market that makes money.”

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