They bought a rare Dune storybook, created by an all-star team of artists (Jodorowsky, Moebius, HR Giger, ...). I think that storybook was used to pitch the concept art to Movie Producers and Studios.
To make this easier to understand, substitute "Dune book" with "Gutenberg Bible" or, even better, "historic, ultrarare, pre-medieval parchment of a Bible translation".
The new owners of that Bible probably do not think (and do not intend to promote the idea) that they now own the property rights for "the" Bible, or for all Bibles, or for any Bible - except for that particular instance of the Bible.
Rather they now own that parchment, with all its decorated pages, handwriting, scripts, gemstones, peculiar translations, and compilation of Gospels and Letters.
These content, drawings and illustrations inside that Bible are really unique, unless the monks decided to draw everything ( or even more often.)
This content could indeed be monetized, or shared with the world, for the greater good.
> This content could indeed be monetized, or shared with the world,
I suggest you read the rest of the discussion. No, it can't be shared, and it can't be monetized. You said it yourself - they do not own the intellectual property rights. They own a printed version of that content that does not include any rights for digital reproduction, derivative work or anything of the sort. Like any other book (!).
If so, why would they think they now have the right to make an animated series based on the IP (which their tweet explicitly states)? You’re being way too charitable.
And as the sibling comment said, this is not the only copy (but seeing elsewhere in the thread that they’ve talked about burning it, perhaps they thought so, too. That’s honestly not an impressive amount of due diligence in that case, to put it mildly).
To make this easier to understand, substitute "Dune book" with "Gutenberg Bible" or, even better, "historic, ultrarare, pre-medieval parchment of a Bible translation".
The new owners of that Bible probably do not think (and do not intend to promote the idea) that they now own the property rights for "the" Bible, or for all Bibles, or for any Bible - except for that particular instance of the Bible.
Rather they now own that parchment, with all its decorated pages, handwriting, scripts, gemstones, peculiar translations, and compilation of Gospels and Letters.
These content, drawings and illustrations inside that Bible are really unique, unless the monks decided to draw everything ( or even more often.)
This content could indeed be monetized, or shared with the world, for the greater good.