A Dutch collector has put an entire mammoth skeleton up for sale on the Dutch online auction site Marktplaats, with a starting bid of €275,000.

Bart Schenning, from Gaarderen in Gelderland, has been collecting animal bones all his life. It took him 10 years to put together the mammoth, made up of 280 bones from different animals, Nos television said.

Most of the bones were dredged up in fishing nets.

Schenning says he has been forced to put the skeleton up for sale because he does not have the space for it. But once it is sold, he plans to start working on a new skeleton.

That may take longer than he would like. According to RTL news, the mammoth has been for sale since January and no-one has yet come up with a suitable bid. Apart from the price, one of the problems is that most Dutch museums already have a mammoth in their collection, the broadcaster said.