Misty the dinosaur heads to Denmark

Misty the dinosaur, a nearly complete skeleton of a diplodocus dinosaur, has been gifted to the Natural History Museum of Denmark by the Obel Family Foundation.

The dinosaur was auctioned last month to an anonymous buyer for $652,000, but now the Natural History Museum revealed that it had acquired Misty, using a donation from the Obel Family Foundation.

"To own a giant dinosaur is of course the dream of any natural history museum. In order to understand nature and the world we live in, we have to understand the past. And more than anything else, a dinosaur is an object that connects us with the distant past, when the world looked very different," said Morten Meldgaard, Director of the Natural History Museum.

"I think it is quite obvious and right that the Natural History Museum of Denmark should own a dinosaur. So when we suddenly had the opportunity to give the museum this early Christmas present, we jumped at the chance," said Christen Obel, chairman of the Obel Family Foundation.

[Natural History Museum] [Obel Family Foundation]