The people who dug Sue out of the ground did not own her. The courts said that she belonged to the person who owned the land she was found on.

There were a lot of arguments about who actually owned the land, because it was close to an Indian Reservation. So for years, Sue's bones stayed in boxes while the courts decided. The owner then decided to sell the bones to the highest bidder, at auction. Sue was sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York on Saturday, October 4, 1997. The bidding began at 10:15 a.m. and just eight minutes later The Field Museum had purchased Sue for nearly $8.4 million &endash; the most money ever paid for a fossil!

It was lucky she was bought by a museum, because if a private person bought her, everyone who wanted to could not go and see her.