by Niger has opened an investigation whether a rare Mars rock was smuggled from the country before selling £ 3.2 million at a New York auction.
The sale of the incredibly rare meteorite of 24.5 kg (54 LB) last month made headlines worldwide when it was unveiled as the largest piece of Mars on Earth.
However, the government of the West African nation of the land closure in which it was discovered has questioned how the stone left the country 5,000 miles under the hammer.
In a statement from state television it states that the ministers for mines, university formation and justice of Niger to investigate the case “which probably bears all the trademarks of illegal international human trade”.
Sotheby’s “rejects strong” a smuggling reproach
The rock was the main attraction at Sotheby’s “Geek Week” auction in mid -July and was sold together with fossils, meteorites and other exhibits for science and natural history.
Neither the buyer nor the seller were named, and little was known who found the meteorite who is officially known to the scientists as NWA in 16788.
The auction catalog only shows that the red-brown rock was found on November 16, 2023 by a “meteorite hunter” in the remote Agadez region of Niger.
Sotheby’s strongly rejects the claim that the rock may have been acted for human trafficking, and said the BBC that it had complied with all international regulations.
Sotheby’s said that NWA 16788 was “exported from Niger and was transported according to all relevant international procedures.
“As with everything we sell, all relevant documentation in every phase of his journey in accordance with proven procedures and the requirements of the countries involved were attached.”
Main hunt
In a last year in a magazine at the University of Florence, the rock in the Sahara, 56 miles west of the Chirfa oasis, was found by “a meteorite hunter whose identity remained unknown”.
The Sahara has become a first -class hunting place for those who are looking for meteorites because the climate gave the preservation of preservation and few human disorders.
The Italian article states that the stone was “sold by the local community to an international dealer” and then transferred to a private gallery in the Italian city of Arezzo.
The magazine described the person as “important Italian gallery owner”.
Scientists from the university then examined the 15-inch meteorites and was briefly exhibited in Italy last year.
“It belongs to a museum”
Only about 400 Martian meteorites were found on Earth, and the NWA 16788 accounts for about seven percent of all known Mars materials here.
About a fifth of the meteorite consists of a glassy material called Masklynit, which was generated by the intensive warmth and pressure that was generated in an asteroid when the Mars was hit.
The power of the impact triggered the rock of Mars’ surface and hurled 140 million miles through the room before racing through the earth’s atmosphere.
The secret nature of the sale has also aroused the fears among some scientists that the stone could be kept privately and is not available to researchers or the public.
Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh last month, told CNN: “It would be a shame if it had disappeared in the vault of an oligarch.
“It belongs to a museum in which it can be examined and where it can enjoy children and families and the public in general.”
A spokesman for a Sotheby spokesman added that the auction house reported that Niger examines the export of the meteorite, and “we check the information that is available to us in view of the question”.
