Meteorites at Bonhams’ New York natural history auction
Published April 11th, 2006
Meteorite hunters will get a chance to bid for some of the world’s most coveted extraterrestrial rocks when they go on sale Tuesday at Bonhams’ New York natural history auction.
Among the highlights are a small slice of the 15.5-ton Willamette, the crown jewel of meteorites on display at the American Museum of Natural History, and a 355-pound iron meteorite from Campo Del Cielo, “Valley of the Sky,” Argentina.
Among the meteorites at Tuesday’s auction – all from the Macovich Collection – the small beveled slice of Williamette is expected to sell for $8,000 to $10,000. The Williamette is North America’s largest meteorite, deposited by the last ice age and discovered in Oregon in 1902.
The large “Valley of the Sky” iron meteorite, measuring 30 inches by 15 inches by 14.5 inches and weighing 355 pounds, looks nearly the same as it did when it burned through the Earth’s atmosphere thousands of years ago. Estimated at $40,000 to $50,000, its surface “thumb prints” are evidence that it “tumbled, spun and corkscrewed in the minutes prior to impact,” Bonhams said.
The auction house also is offering a lunar specimen of the only off-white fallen chunk of the moon available to the public. Its presale estimate is $5,000 to $6,000.
