The skeletons of an allosaurus and a diplodocus are up for auction today in Paris, France – marketed as hip interior design objects for those with big enough living rooms. “The fossil market is no longer just for scientists,” says Iacopo Briano, of Binoche et Giquello, the auction house that is putting the two dinosaurs under the hammer. “Dinosaurs have become cool, trendy -– real objects of decoration, like paintings,” the Italian expert told Agence France-Presse, citing Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage as fans of such outsized prehistoric ornaments. Want to get your hands on a genuine Hermes Birkin? Here's how Christie’s evaluates the world’s most expensive handbags Cage, however, did hand back the rare skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a close cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, which he bought in 2007 after it was found to have been stolen and illegally taken out of Mongolia. Dinosaur bones are increasingly gracing collectors’ cabinets, with another huge skeleton, that of a theropod, expected to fetch up to € 1.5 million (US$1.84 million) when it goes up for auction in June. Chinese buyers “For the last two or three years the Chinese have become interested in palaeontology and have been looking for big specimens of dinosaurs found on their soil, for their museums or even for individuals,” Briano says. The new buyers are now bidding against multinational corporations as well as ultra-rich Europeans and Americans, the “traditional” buyers of dinosaur skeletons, Briano adds. In 1997, McDonald’s and Walt Disney were among donors stumping up US$8.36 million to buy Sue – the most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever found – for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Bizarre items fetch Russell Crowe US$2.83 million in divorce auction “Millions of people come to see it, it’s incredible publicity for companies,” says Eric Mickeler, a natural history expert for the Aguttes auction house. Palaeontologists acknowledge that many fossils that go on the block are of limited scientific interest, but important specimens do go up for auction and can, as in Sue’s case, be bought through acts of patronage. The market remains small and “isn’t for everybody”, Mickeler says. Only around five dinosaurs are put up for auction around the world every year. ‘People like the teeth’ The allosaurus which goes on sale today , among 87 lots of natural artefacts, is considered “small” at 3.8 metres (12.5 feet) long. It is expected to fetch up to € 650,000, while the diplodocus – despite being bigger at 12 metres long from nose to tail -– has a guide price of € 450,000 to € 500,000. Carnivores like the allosaurus often fetch more than herbivores. “People like the teeth,” Mickeler says. Celebrity jeweller Cindy Chao’s artistic earrings auctioned for almost HK$1.4 million at Sotheby’s The price also goes up if the skeleton shows traces of a fight or an incurable illness, as well as if it is considered rare, has a high percentage of verified bones, or a particularly impressive skull. “We recently sold a very beautiful piece to a Venetian family, they have a magnificent big room in which the dinosaur is perfectly at ease,” Briano says. But Ronan Allain, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris, denounced “completely nonsensical” prices. “It’s the luxury world, it’s not for people like us,” he said. “We could decide to buy it pre-emptively, but for the theropod, for example, that would mean shelling out more than a million,” he says. Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter