[meteorite-list] 45-Pound Pallasite Found In New Mexico Part Of Art Exhibit

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:09 2004
Message-ID: <200102110326.TAA16274_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.abqjournal.com/scitech/rock02-10-01.htm

Meteorite Found In N.M. Part Of Art Exhibit
By Sandra Valdez Gerdes
Tucson Citizen
February 10, 2001

   TUCSON, Ariz. - Obsessions can sometimes result in wonderful things.
   For Stephen Schoner, it led to something that was literally from another
world.
   It took the 50-year-old Flagstaff resident 15 years searching the hills
of Santa Fe County, N.M., to find what some call the "holy grail" of
Glorieta Mountain - a 45-pound pallasite.
   Schoner's prize is a meteorite characterized by golden minerals. It is
considered the missing link to a larger meteorite discovered by prospectors
in 1884.
   Schoner's obsession took him through four years of searching before he
made a find. Over the next six years he would find more than 200 samples,
most of them small. But he persevered and his determination ultimately paid
off.
   Slices of Schoner's world-famous pallasite and other meteorites are part
of the Macovich Collection of meteorites, the world's largest collection of
aesthetic meteorites.
   The Glorieta pallasite is just the kind of meteorite for which the
Macovich Collection is famous.
   Curator Darryl Pitt has spent more than 10 years trying to change the
meteorite industry. With a love of things astronomical and a background in
the visual arts, he was amazed that both ugly and aesthetic meteorites were
judged equally and priced only by size.
   Inspired by Tucson collector Robert Haag, he began searching the world
for beautiful meteorites and focused on introducing them into the art
market.
   He later began natural history auctions of his specimens, which has led
to meteorites being accepted as objects of art, he said. In 1998 a Macovich
Collection meteorite earned the highest price paid for a complete slice of
meteorite, $137,500.
   "I have picked meteorite specimens to present them as what I believed it
to be, a natural sculpture from outer space," Pitt said.
   Meteorites that have hit unusual things - and the things they hit -
are worth more. Among the unusual famous targets are a mailbox and a
Venezuelan cow.
   Pitt and Schoner united when Pitt helped finance some of Schoner's
meteorite hunts by purchasing some of Schoner's smaller finds. In doing so,
he received the first right of refusal to Schoner's eventual big catch.
   "I believed in (Schoner's) belief that a larger one existed," Pitt said.
   The 1997 discovery was so personal and spiritual for Schoner that it was
a year and a half before he told anyone about the grand meteorite.
   Schoner says his infatuation with meteorites stems from childhood. He
vividly recalls seeing his first meteorite in a New York planetarium when he
was 5. It weighed 15 tons.
   "I asked my mother, 'What is this?' You could tap it and it would ring
like a bell," he said. "My mother said, 'It's a piece of planets that didn't
form.' At that point I was hooked."
Received on Sat 10 Feb 2001 10:26:06 PM PST