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Monahans
Hello Steve, hello List,
I contacted O.R. Norton and he was so kind as to answer immediately;
here are his comments:
Dear Bernd,
The Old Woman Meteorite was found on Bureau of Land Management land
which is under Federal jurisdiction. In the United States, any meteorite
found on
"public" lands belong to the Federal Government. Since the nation's
meteorite collection is at the Smithsonian, the BLM through the
Department of the Interior gave the Old Woman Meteorite to the
Smithsonian. If you want a much more detailed account of the legal
issues regarding the Old Woman Meteorite, I published two consecutive
articles in the December, 1996 and January, 1997 issues of the Lapidary
Journal under the title, "There Was An Old Woman...".
If something of scientific interest is found on state lands, the
Antiquity Act of 1906 could be used by the Federal Government in an
attempt to confiscate the property. The federal case is much weaker here
since it was found on state lands and the precedent is that the item is
the property of the owner of the land.
O. Richard Norton