[meteorite-list] Park Forest Meteorite Heading For Field Museum

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:09 2004
Message-ID: <200304171549.IAA23199_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spnews/news/17-sp9.htm

Meteorite heading for Field Museum
By Erika Enigk
The Star (Chicago, Illinois)
April 17, 2003

Park Forest trustees chose education over profit this week.

They voted unanimously Monday to sell a meteorite that crashed through the
village fire department last month to a museum despite higher bids from
collectors.

The Field Museum in Chicago will pay $10 per gram for the piece. The space
junk weighs 1.2 pounds, meaning the village will make approximately $5,448,
village manager Janet Muchnik said.

The Field Museum will share the piece with other museums, including the
Adler Planetarium, Planetary Studies Foundation, American Museum of
Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Muchnik
said.

The board approved the sale after an agreement was made allowing the village
to house the meteorite for one month each year.

Trustees said they chose to sell the piece because of preservation issues.

"Keeping track of the conditions of display and scientific use of these
meteorites ... is a nontrivial endeavor that we are fully equipped to handle but
which would be difficult for the village management to take responsibility for in
the long term," Meenakshi Wadhwa, curator of meteorites at the Field
Museum, said.

"This is a very dense rock. We could keep it as a symbol of the board," village
President John Ostenburg said jokingly.

The museum will have the piece 11 months per year under the sale agreement,
Muchnik said. Museum officials will issue a side letter which says the village
will keep the meteorite for the other month for display and educational
purposes.

The village could have sold the meteorite for more money, Muchnik said, but
other potential buyers would not have used it for public education.

"I do not believe that price is the key determinant for the board of trustees,"
she said.

Steven Simon, a senior research associate at the University of Chicago and a
Park Forest resident, said the Field Museum would keep the meteorite intact
and be sure to display it with geographical information about the village.

"It's a world-class museum. It's had a world-class collection of meteorites for
over 100 years," he said.

"The primary mission of museums is to preserve artifacts and to maximize
their educational and scientific potential," Wadhwa said.

Simon said the piece will officially be displayed as the Park Forest Meteorite.

Erika Enigk may be reached at (708) 802-8847 or via e-mail at
eenigk_at_starnewspapers.com
Received on Thu 17 Apr 2003 11:49:46 AM PDT