How does one place a value upon a unique item? With automobiles and avocadoes, there is some basis by which to draw conclusions as to how to set a selling price for each. In the case of something that is so unexpectedly available in our world, as has this redwood exhibit now become, what can guide us? It is insufficient to say that uniqueness can be evaluated alone on its own merits, no matter how important this characteristic of the redwood piece may be among its many attributes. Yet this is one of the features that must guide us in seeking a sound price at auction.

The redwood walk-in room exhibit may best be compared to nature's (with man's help in this case) productions that are either truly unique or in numbers so vanishingly small that they command attention and possess a worth that might be reasonably valued. The tyrannosaur Sue leaps immediately to mind as an object much sought after and clearly of immense monetary value. It should not be left unsaid that the redwood section is much rarer than any tyrannosaur, but the comparison should not be pushed too far; the auction value of the tree segment cannot be so inflated as was that for Sue.

The logic for setting the beginning auction bid for the redwood exhibit then takes into account several features: the object is believed to be utterly unique outside of the few vaguely comparable exhibits restricted to the species original endemic habitat of Northern California/Southern Oregon. Further, not terribly unlike fossilized organisms, it possessed great age at the time of its cutting. And, like its botanical 'cousin,' it is among the largest of living things (the Giant Sequoia is, in fact so, being 11 times the size of a Blue Whale, the largest animal that ever lived), certainly the tallest of the Coast Redwoods are held to be the tallest, or nearly so, of all tree species. The circumference, while not in the league of the Giant Sequoia, is still well beyond almost any other arboraceous species known. The constellation of features then of this item: uniqueness, age, size-characteristics that the museum world holds significant when estimating the worth of significant fossil finds-must be utilized in setting its opening bid value. This is an arresting production of nature, molded by humans into a magnet for any museum setting.

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