On July 14, 2026, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex named "Gus" sold at Sotheby's in New York for $50.1 million. It blew past its $20–30 million estimate after a ten-minute bidding war between seven bidders, becoming the most expensive dinosaur fossil ever auctioned. A few years ago, the idea that a private individual would outbid museums for a T. rex would have seemed absurd. In 2026 it barely raised an eyebrow.

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So before we get to whether any of this is a good idea, it's worth looking at what's actually happening, because the scale of it is genuinely new.

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‍What the ultra-wealthy are actually buying right now

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The passion-asset market is having one of its strongest years on record. The major auction houses booked close to $10 billion in sales in the first half of 2026, one of the best starts ever, as buyers grew confident on the back of soaring stock markets. Sotheby's alone posted its best first half in its 282-year history, roughly $4.4 billion, up 58% year over year. There were eight lots that sold for more than $50 million each in the first half, compared with none in the same stretch of the prior two years.

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The strength is across almost every category:

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• Dinosaurs and natural history. "Gus" is the headline, but it's part of a trend. In 2024, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin paid $44.6 million for a Stegosaurus skeleton nicknamed "Apex," which he then placed on long-term loan at the American Museum of Natural History. A T. rex called "Stan" went for $31.8 million back in 2020. What was once the exclusive territory of institutions has become a trophy category for private buyers.
• Watches. Phillips, in association with Bacs & Russo, posted its largest-ever half for watch sales, around $235 million across New York, Geneva, and Hong Kong. The priciest single watch was an ultra-rare F.P. Journe Souscription Résonance that hammered for roughly $13.9 million. Patek Philippe remains strong, but a lot of the energy is in rarefied independent makers, exactly the kind of pieces Mark Zuckerberg has been photographed wearing.
• Art. Blue-chip and estate sales continue to anchor the houses, with single works still trading in the eight figures and marquee collections drawing global bidding.
• Everything else on the podium. Classic cars, fine wine, rare jewelry, and motorcycles are all part of the same story. As one leading auctioneer put it, these categories now sit side by side with fine art at the top of the market.

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Watches, cars, wine, fossils, art: the common thread is scarcity. There is only one Gus, only one of a given reference in a given condition. That's what makes these objects behave less like consumer goods and more like assets people expect to hold, and eventually sell, for real money.

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Who's driving it: tech money and a "great taste transfer"

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The buyer has changed, and that matters more than any single price.

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A new wave of younger collectors, many of them from the tech world, is redefining what gets collected and how. The numbers from the houses tell the story. Christie's reported that 30% of its first-half buyers were new, 47% of those were millennials or younger, and 85% of bids were placed online. Phillips saw a similar pattern: a 90% sell-through rate, 40% first-time buyers, and nearly a third of buyers from the millennial and Gen Z generations, with most lots sold online. At Sotheby's, more than 40% of watch clients are now 40 or younger.

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Industry insiders have started calling this less a "great wealth transfer" and more a "great taste transfer." The next generation isn't just inheriting money; it's collecting differently, more online, more cross-category, and more willing to treat a watch or a fossil as a serious holding rather than a curiosity. Combine that with a strong stock market minting new liquidity, and you get exactly what 2026 is showing: record prices, record participation, and a lot of new money chasing rare things.

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So, smart investment or expensive hobby?

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Here's the honest answer: it's neither, inherently. A rare object isn't "smart" or "frivolous" on its own. A $10 million watch can be a sound diversifier for one family and a reckless, illiquid bet for another. The object is identical; the difference is the balance sheet it lands on.

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These assets have a genuinely unusual profile. They're illiquid, you can't sell a T. rex the way you sell a stock. They generally throw off no income. They carry real costs to insure, store, and maintain. And their value rests on desirability, which can move. But they also tend to move independently of public markets, and the truly scarce ones have held value across generations and currencies. Whether that nets out to smart or foolish is a question about context, not about the object.

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And there's a dimension the price tag never captures. For many buyers, owning something historically significant is a form of preservation, not just acquisition. Griffin's Apex sits in a museum where the public can see it; dinosaur sales, for all the debate they stir among scientists, often end with these specimens on display for others to learn from. A great many important pieces are eventually donated or loaned so their history stays alive. That's a legacy motive as much as a financial one, and legacy is a large part of why families build wealth in the first place.

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The bottom line

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The ultra-wealthy aren't wrong to buy dinosaurs, watches, and art, and they aren't automatically wise to, either. What separates a smart investment from an expensive hobby usually isn't the purchase. It's whether the buyer can see how it fits into everything else they own.

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That's the part we care about at MyFO. It isn't our job to tell you where to invest or to judge what you collect. It is our job to make sure a decision like this is made with eyes open, that you know what it does to your liquidity, your concentration, and your overall picture, so a passion asset is a deliberate part of the plan rather than a blind spot in it. Often, that clarity is exactly what gives families the confidence to buy the thing.

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Curious how your full picture, passion assets included, actually fits together? Book a call.

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Frequently asked questions

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What are wealthy people buying at auction in 2026? Records are being set across dinosaurs and natural history, watches, art, classic cars, wine, and jewelry. Auction houses booked close to $10 billion in the first half of 2026, with Sotheby's posting its best first half ever. Headline sales include the "Gus" T. rex at $50.1 million and an F.P. Journe watch at roughly $13.9 million.

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Why are tech billionaires buying dinosaur fossils? Dinosaur skeletons have become trophy assets prized for their extreme scarcity, and a wave of younger, tech-driven collectors is treating them as both status pieces and stores of value. Some buyers, like Ken Griffin with the "Apex" Stegosaurus, place specimens on public museum loan.

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Are collectibles like art and watches a good investment? They can be, but only in context. Collectibles are illiquid, produce no income, and carry ongoing costs, yet they also offer low correlation to public markets and can hold value across generations. Whether one belongs in a portfolio depends on its size relative to total net worth and its effect on overall liquidity and diversification.

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Are luxury collectibles high risk or low risk? Both, depending on the rest of the portfolio. On their own they carry meaningful risks. But as a small allocation within a diversified balance sheet, their independence from public markets can actually help steady overall risk.

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