The Fourth Largest Slice of the Moon on Earth Hits Christie's Auction Block
PR88100
NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
-- Online bidding ends February 23rd
-- Featuring specimens from the Macovich Collection
While NASA's Mars Rover Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars this
Thursday, here is your chance to acquire portions of the planet Mars days
later. Open for bidding until February 23rd is Christie's "Deep Impact:
Martian, Lunar and other Rare Meteorites" (
https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact-martian-lunar-other-rare-meteorites/lots/2006
) online sale.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1438711/lot_21.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1438712/lot_25.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1438710/lot_18.jpg
Featured lots include a dozen offerings of the Moon and Mars and another dozen
from some of the most famous museums in the world. There is a historic
meteorite that reputedly killed a man (
) and one that absolutely killed a cow; there are meteorites that contain the
oldest matter mankind can touch and others with gems from outer space (
).
LOT 21 - SLICE OF A MARS ROCK (
)
Leading the sale is the fourth largest slice of the Moon (
). Cut from the meteorite Tisserlitine 001, its surface area is more than twice
that of any other sliced lunar sample. Lunar meteorites, among the rarest
substances on Earth, arrived here after being blasted off the Moon following
asteroid impacts. Scientists confirmed this specimen's lunar mineralogical and
isotopic signatures. (Estimate: $250,000- 350,000)
Aesthetic meteorites from the Macovich Collection, the foremost collection of
aesthetic iron meteorites, are featured including a 300-pound example which
qualifies as natural sculpture from outer space. It broke a sales record at
auction in 1996, became part of an important private collection for decades and
may soon break another record (Estimate: $180,000-260,000).
Macovich Curator, Darryl Pitt, created the market for aesthetic iron meteorites
and in the late 90s, in an effort to inspire kids, he created the limited
edition "Mars Cube - the First Interplanetary Collectible" (
). Containing particles of Mars along with a Mars Owner's Manual its estimate
is $600-1000.
"If there was ever a time to change the channel and be awed by the infiniteness
of the night sky, we're living in it," said Pitt. "But if you want to inspire
and see eyes widen - touch a meteorite."
LOT 25 - MOST BEAUTIFUL EXTRATERRESTRIAL SUBSTANCE KNOWN (
)
Of course, you can always try to find one. After the 2014 Tirhert meteorite
shower in Morocco a father took his son to search for otherworldly treasure.
Under a scorching hot desert sun, as hundreds relentlessly searched the desert
floor, the young boy searched instead for some shade where he found the
meteorite now offered wedged between the branches of his shade tree (
) (estimate: $15,000 - 25,000).
On July 24th, 1790 a meteorite shower occurred in southwestern France. When
someone checked in on a herdsman, they came upon a hole in his thatched roof
and an unusual rock alongside his lifeless body. He well could have been the
first and only documented human fatality from a meteorite impact except for one
problem: the prevailing belief at the time was that rocks could not fall out of
the sky. And if meteorites don't exist...then how could someone be killed by
one? But this specimen from that historic meteorite shower exists (
) (estimate: $2,000 - 3,000)
"We've put together our most diverse offering of meteorites to date and
collectors are responding with great enthusiasm," said James Hyslop, Head of
Science and Natural History at Christie's. "Among my favorites is a Swedish
meteorite that originated from the core of an asteroid and was fashioned into a
sphere; it's natural crystalline structure makes this an extraterrestrial
crystal ball" (estimate $14,000 - 18,000). And the future it sees? An
eye-widening Christie's Deep Impact sale.
LOT 18 - EXTRATERRESTRIAL CRYSTAL BALL (
)
SERENA BABCOCK / DOF MEDIA / SERENA@DOF3.COM / +1 212-302-9200
SOURCE: Macovich Collection
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