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Auction Will Feature 125 Actual Meteorites in October (Can You Guess How Much They Cost?)

Sep. 26, 2012 2:56pm Erica Ritz

(TheBlaze/AP) — A New York City auction will offer 125 meteorites for sale, including a large chunk of the moon and a 179-pound iron cosmic rock that evokes Edvard Munch’s iconic painting “The Scream.”

The sale, one of the largest of its kind, is being held by the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Oct. 14.

The sale also includes a large piece of the Peekskill meteorite, famous for puncturing a Chevy Malibu in 1992 about 50 miles north of Manhattan, and the largest complete slice of the most famous meteorite in the world, the Willamette, a huge specimen that is housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

New York City to Auction 125 Meteorites, Moon Pieces in October | The Scream | Heritage Auctions

This photo shows a large chunk of the moon found in Libya, estimated to bring $340,000 to $380,000. (Photo: AP)

The moon rock has the highest pre-sale estimate of $340,000 to $380,000; less than 0.1 percent of all meteorites recovered are lunar in origin. The18-inch-tall meteorite dubbed “The Scream” is estimated at $175,000 to $225,000.

“When I first saw this meteorite (The Scream) I saw the resemblance in a heartbeat,” said Darryl Pitt, who has consigned the piece to the auction. “It is sculpted in part by atmospheric entry and most significantly by its exposure to the elements on earth over millennia.”

This photo provided by Heritage Auctions depicts one of the meteorites to be auctioned with indentations that evoke Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” (Photo: AP)

Three of the concave hallows are evocative of Munch’s image of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked sky. It is classified a Gibeon and was discovered in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.

More than half of the meteorites in the sale come from the Macovich collection, the world’s largest grouping of iron meteorites. Specimens from the collection are found at the natural history museums in London, New York and Paris and The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., among others. Its principal owner is Pitt, who said that 20 years ago all meteorites were selling for the same price irrespective of their aesthetic attributes.

“That has radically changed with the introduction of the first natural history auction in the mid-1990s,” he said in an interview. “I was on a mission to popularize meteorites. I knew that the only way I would be able to attract interest on the part of the public was to offer objects that were more visually captivating.”

“The overwhelming majority of meteorites are not aesthetic,” he said.

The cover lot in the sale is of an iron meteorite with naturally-formed holes that resemble a mask. The catalog says it is “arguably the most exotically aesthetic” and was discovered by indigenous tribesmen in Namibia with a metal detector. It is estimated to bring $140,000 to $180,000.

The Peekskill piece has a pre-sale estimate of $47,500 to $55,000.

This undated photo shows a naturally sculpted Gibeon iron meteorite discovered by indigenous tribesmen in Namibia. It will be part of the sale upcoming sale. (Photo: AP)

There are others that have lower estimates but come with interesting stories, like a small portion of a meteorite estimated at about $4,000 that fell from the sky in 1492. It was later chained up in a church so it couldn’t fly back into orbit.

Meteorite prices today depend on many variables. But there are two main markets: one of aesthetic iron meteorites and the other is of samples whose value is predicated on attributes other than aesthetics, like a piece of the planet Mars.

About two dozen of the meteorites in the sale have museum provenance and have no reserve.

“The point is I wanted to create a sale that had something for everyone,” Pitt said.

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Comments (17)

Tracy Y. Andersen
Posted on September 30, 2012 at 2:37am
Yeah, a metal detector on a glacier is a good suggestion, but an easier method to find meteors in your own backyard (literally!) is to drag a magnet over a spot of ground, away from anything that might contaminate it, such as cars driving over it, and the dust you collect might be the remnants of meteors that made it to earth intact. The stuff is falling on us, all over, every day, and is collectable just that easily. Of course, it is more microscopic than the rocks shown, but same stuff nevertheless.

I asked an expert to verify a rock I found — it was a meteorwrong, not a meteorite — and he looked skeptically at the dust I also showed him, but without comment, leaving me to my own delusions, I suppose. Oh, well, I like to believe….

He had samples of real meteorites to show me, and they were fascinating, especially a 9 inch diameter slab, quarter inch thick, of a meteorite that had olivine (clear green stones) in an iron matrix, that had a beautiful Widmanstatten pattern — crystal pattern at three axes, 60 degrees to each other. Nothing like that is formed on Earth, but Out There somewhere. Neat to see, when they come to us.

Laus Deo

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Stoic one
Posted on September 27, 2012 at 2:06am
What I find fascinating about this , is the scientific inquiry which discovered the origins in the first place.

Would I spend so much money on a rock? don’t know because I do not have that kind of money. I am certainly glad some people do… that means perhaps I might earn some it from them.

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gyro
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 11:08pm
metal detector on a glacier and some luck and your rich !!!!

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Joe_The_Patriot
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 8:21pm
They are more rare than gold, silver, diamonds, platinum ect.

I have several. They are pieces of the universe from millions if not billions of years ago…

Very Cool If you ask Me!!!

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semihardrock
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 4:16pm
I can tell you how much they REALLY cost…..They are FREE!

Only idiot human beings put a monetary value on something completely useless…Just like Government does every day….

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- WATER-THE-TREE
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 11:36pm
  Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.
  
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Chuck7884
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 4:06pm
Pet rocks are sure expensive these days.

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tightline
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:36pm
Cool rocks, but way pay so much??!! Some are more than I pay for my house, maybe one day I can **** away $140k on a rock!!! But today is not that day, I feel I may need a loan to fill up my truck,,,

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PeppermintCrush
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:20pm
I think the rocks are amazing and beautiful.

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BehindTheMouth
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:17pm
Is this some stupid fundraiser for the commanding ***** in charge?

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BehindTheMouth
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:15pm
Is this some stupid fundraiser for Obluegum?

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blackyb
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:03pm
How silly. They are just rocks. Who cares?

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- AZfreeman
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 4:07pm
  Gold nuggets are just rocks/minerals also…who’d want any of that stuff? Actually there are many meteorites that are way more valuable than gold – ounce for ounce. Go ahead and put your cash in the stock market and see how that works out for ‘ya. ….rf
  (note my icon)
  
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- RRFlyer
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 6:37pm
  How silly to be so ignorant of the earth and the solar system and the universe that things are just usless rocks to you.
  
  I”m sorry for your lack of imagination and your choice to be a hater.
  
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- chrinortay
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 9:30pm
  First, please allow me to apologize for RRFLYER. He knows better than to use the computer unsupervised.
  
  Second, RRFLYER, if you believe that everything started with a “big bang” (lol if you do), then there is nothing special about meteorites. They are the same material as what can be found on earth. Also, my dog makes stuff in the backyard that would blow your imaginative mind! Now, wipe the smugness, and what my dog makes in the backyard, off of your face and stop being an idiot.
  
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blackyb
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:02pm
Some of those end time stones falling. Even God lets someone throw rocks at these thugs.

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- PeppermintCrush
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:16pm
  From your lips to God’s ears, BlackyB. One can only pray….
  
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