Sothebys elegant restaurant Marcel features T. rex tooth display and succulent fare

If you don’t have $30 million to bid on “Gus” – a 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton to be auctioned at Sotheby’s on July 14 – you can have a late Cretaceous jewel for relative peanuts: a T.-rex tooth for a mere $40,000 to $60,000.The tooth displayed in a vitrine next to the hostess stand is part of the fun at Sotheby’s hot-button restaurant, Marcel.It’s one of dozens of precious objects and works of art displayed amidst the clubby but open-to-all French eatery’s mohair-upholstered booths, walnut-paneled walls, and original metal lamps designed by the landmark building’s architect, Marcel Breuer.The art displays are a bold marketing stroke at Sotheby’s, the world’s largest auction house with over $5 billion in annual sales at locations around the world.

Most of the works in Marcel’s dining room, bar and adjacent areas — such as an Ellsworth Kelly abstract composition in blue, black and green at the top of the stairs — are for sale at auction.(The few that aren’t are on loan from private collections).The works are chosen by “a curatorial  committee in our private sales division,” explained Lisa Dennison, chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America.“Their responsibility is to work with Marcel so there’s something interesting on display at all times,” she said.A QR code fills diners in on the treasures on view.  One recent batch included untitled abstract paintings by Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, sculptures by John Chamberlain, a Renoir nude and a Robert Indiana aluminum “Love” sculpture.“Marcel fits with their strategy.

They’re in the business of selling not only art, but luxury items and even a dinosaur,” said Art historian Mari-Claudia Jimenez, a former Sotheby’s president and now an advisor to the institution.“The displays give you a sense of how you might live with a dinosaur tooth or a Robert Indiana sculpture or the Joan Mitchell painting over the entire dining room,” Jimenez add...