ADVERTISEMENT ‘Geek Week’ could have a myriad of meanings for a New York gathering of rare objects on sale this week but what’s certain is that those attending Sotheby’s would need to have deep pockets.
A massive meteorite from Mars was trailed as the prized object and fetched more than $5 million (just over €4.3m) on Wednesday at the auction of very special geological and archaeological items
Billed as the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, the 25 kilogramme rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023.
It was blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and travelled 225 million kilometers to Earth, according to Sotheby’s.
The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official sale price was about $5.3 million, making it the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction.
The identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed.
Elsewhere during the auction, a rare young dinosaur skeleton sparked a war among six bidders over six minutes, eventually fetching more than $30 million (€25.8m).
With a pre-auction estimate of $4 million to $6 million, it is one of only four known Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeletons and the only juvenile skeleton of the species, which resembles the Tyrannosaurus Rex… But smaller.
The buyer, whose identity was also not immediately disclosed, plans to loan dino skeleton to an institution, according to Sotheby’s.
It was the third-highest amount paid for a dinosaur at auction. A Stegosaurus skeleton called “Apex” holds the record after it was sold for $44.6 million (€38.4m) last year at Sotheby’s.
