A mammoth Sotheby's sale of Siberian ... mammoth bones

It is a 'must-have ornament for a cavernous living room or backyard lawn', reported news agency Associated Press. 

Lot 65 - the mammoth - dates from the Middle Paleolithic period when Neanderthals roamed the earth. 

Sotheby's say the skeleton 'is one of the few in the world' that comes with permits for it to be taken outside Russia, which means it can be used for commercial purposes. 

It was not immediately clear when the bones left Russia but it is reported that the Siberian mammoth - along with other items in a 'Histoire Naturelle" auction - come from the Kashiwagi museum in Japan.

Other items for sale include a dinosaur egg and a 'rare' woolly rhinoceros skeleton, also from Siberia, expected to fetch up to 100,000 euro.

The rhino, Lot 79, also comes with its official paperwork, state Sotheby's in the catalogue for the October 2 auction. 

Both the mammoth and the woolly rhino were common in Siberia but became extinct in the last 10,000 years.