[meteorite-list] Recovered Moon Rock Will Go Back To Honduras

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:02 2004
Message-ID: <200304040052.QAA07440_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/space/1841948

Case ends voyage of moon rock

Recovered stone will go back to Honduras
By ERIC BERGER
Houston Chronicle
March 28, 2003

Antiquities dealer Alan Rosen had a really old
item to sell five years ago.

Although Rosen didn't trust the two men who
placed an advertisement in USA Today seeking
to buy moon rocks, his choices were limited
considering the asking price of $5 million for the
tiny stone.

So Rosen agreed to meet Tony Coriasso and
John Marta at a Miami Beach restaurant even
though he believed they might be federal agents
trying to seize his 4-billion-year-old rock. He
also feared they could work for Honduras, the
country where he found it.

Rosen's instincts proved correct. The
restaurant meeting set off a federal sting
operation that resulted in a court order this
week to return the moon rock to Honduras.

"He was suspicious from Day 1 about us," says
Joseph Gutheinz, who posed as Tony Coriasso
but was really a special agent for NASA. "He
would routinely challenge us to prove who we
were."

The ruling ends the rock's decades-long
journey on Earth, passed from the hands of
astronauts to presidents, from revolutionaries
to collectors.

Although last summer's theft of 10 ounces of
moon rocks and meteorites from Johnson Space
Center by summer interns involved more
material, the 1998 Honduras moon rock
recovery was the first in which an item brought
back from outer space was retrieved in a law
enforcement operation.

Its story begins in December 1972, when
Apollo 17 astronauts picked up the rock from
the Taurus Littrow Valley during the last U.S.
flight to the moon.

In early 1973, as a goodwill gesture at the close
of the Apollo program, President Nixon gave
moon rocks to several nations, including
Honduras, saying the U.S. visit to the moon
was "truly an international effort."

The rock remained in the Honduran presidential
palace until at least 1990, surviving several
military coups and elections. Sometime
between then and 1994 it was secretly
removed, and found its way to a retired military
colonel, Roberto Argurcia Ugarte.

Rosen would later testify that he met with
Argurcia in 1995. The colonel claimed to have
received the rock as a gift for his part in a coup
d'etat in 1973, and seemed eager to sell.

Although the colonel first wanted $1 million for
the moon rock, he later dropped his price to
$50,000. Ultimately, Rosen paid $15,000 in cash
and gave up a $15,000 refrigerated truck to
acquire the rock in April 1996, meeting an
intermediary at a Denny's restaurant near the
Miami airport.

Scientists can differentiate between rocks from
Earth, the moon and other heavenly bodies by
measuring the composition of certain minerals.
Each planet has its own ratios that are
determined by geologic history.

By having an independent scientist perform
such a test, Rosen verified the rock's lunar
origin. He began looking for a buyer, but his
price was high. He rejected a $500,000 offer
from a Swiss man who wanted to use chips of
the tiny rock in high-end watches.

At about the same time Gutheinz, who worked
in NASA's Office of the Inspector General, and
another agent sought to crack down on people
selling counterfeit moon rocks.

"We were never looking for a real moon rock,"
said Gutheinz, now a Houston defense lawyer.
"The counterfeiting problem is compounded by
the fact that you have a lot of space buffs."

Rosen contacted Gutheinz, and during initial
talks suggested he wanted to sell a piece of the
rock and return the remainder with its plaque to
its country of origin.

After viewing an Internet site with information
about the rock, Gutheinz and others began to
believe the rock was legitimate. Further
discussions led to the meeting at a Miami
restaurant.

Several times in the coming weeks, Gutheinz
said, a nervous Rosen would ask for immediate
verification of his assumed identity, such as the
name of a friend to call.

Eventually, in November 1998, Rosen agreed to
allow an independent bank official to take a
photograph of the moon rock. He got to choose
the bank; his buyers got to choose the official.

An undercover customs agent posing as a bank
official met Rosen and seized the moon rock.

At the trial Rosen argued that he was the
rightful owner of the moon rock, but U.S.
District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled that
Rosen knew the item was effectively stolen and
subject to forfeiture. Rosen's lawyer, Peter
Herrick, did not respond to a request for
comment on the judge's ruling.

Thus the case -- Operation Lunar Eclipse --
is now closed.
Received on Thu 03 Apr 2003 07:52:54 PM PST