[meteorite-list] Fwd: 1, 400-pound Pallasite Meteorite Goes On Auction

From: Darryl Pitt <darryl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:26:26 -0400
Message-ID: <DC5B98EE-5DE5-4424-82AE-4A201665A881_at_dof3.com>

as the following is now circulating outside of steve's hometown,
please note the writer was informed that steve's oriented brenham is
the largest available intact pallasite and the largest oriented
pallasite known to exist. it was also mentioned that steve's
meteorite, as everyone on this list is well aware, would be a
centerpiece at any of the foremost natural history museums. only when
i said goodbye to this fellow, after several minutes of answering
questions, did i make any mention of homeboys ringing bells.

shame on me.

all best/ darryl

p.s. the sale on october 28th features several lots without
reserves, which is to say that according to the laws of the state of
new york specimens of siena, ensisheim, weston, tatahouine and canyon
diablo--among others--will sell for as little as the market bears.

the first contemporary auction to offer a collection of meteorites
was in 1995 as part of phillips' first natural history auction. the
offering in which steve's meteorite is featured is the first auction
devoted to meteorites by a traditional auction house, and will
hopefully prove worthy of such a benchmark.

d.

Depth of Field Management
1501 Broadway Suite 1304
New York, New York 10036
212.302.9200






Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> Date: September 24, 2007 5:50:47 PM EDT
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com (Meteorite Mailing List)
> Subject: [meteorite-list] 1,400-pound Pallasite Meteorite Goes On
> Auction
>
>
>
> http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/202352/
>
> Auction to settle question of worth
> BY MARK MINTON
> Arkansas Democrat Gazette
> September 24, 2007
>
> After Steve Arnold finally found the big one, buried seven feet
> deep in
> a Kansas wheat field, he hoisted his treasure into the bed of his
> pickup
> and hauled it back to the Ozarks.
>
> Two years later, Arnold's discovery, a rare meteorite that is the
> biggest of its kind ever unearthed, will go to the high bidder at an
> auction scheduled for next month in New York. Also on the block:
> Choice
> chunks of the moon and Mars, a smattering of meteorites decommissioned
> from the Smithsonian Institution and London's Natural History Museum,
> and a rock billed as "the sexiest meteorite on earth."
>
> There is even a crumpled mailbox felled by a meteorite that hurtled
> down
> one night in 1984, crash-landing outside a mobile home in Georgia.
>
> Bonhams & Butterfields, the auction house staging what it calls the
> first sale devoted to "fine meteorites," says the Oct. 28 event is
> historic because it includes a piece of the famous "Willamette
> meteorite" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New
> York. But Arnold's cone-tipped space rock - "the most important
> American
> meteorite discovery of the past 50 years" - is the headliner in the
> Bonhams announcement.
>
> The 1,430-pound chunk of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars
> already has brought fame to Arnold, a 41-year-old professional
> meteorite
> hunter who lives near Kingston in Madison County. His Oct. 16, 2005,
> discovery landed him an appearance on NBC's Today show, among other
> media notices.
>
> But only the auction will answer the question that has consumed him
> since he dug up the stone: What's it worth?
>
> No one can say with precision. Prize meteorites reportedly have
> sold to
> collectors for six-figure sums. A rock this big, however, may be
> beyond
> the reach of all but a couple of collectors, said Darryl Pitt, curator
> of New York's noted Macovich collection, which has about a dozen of
> its
> own pieces in the auction.
>
> The priciest meteorite ever sold at public auction went for $ 135,000.
> "And that was just a slice," Pitt said.
>
> "Your homeboy there, he rang the bell on this. It's truly off the
> charts.'
>
> Arnold discovered his meteorite, which is the size of an engine block,
> on farmland near Brenham, Kan.
>
> About 100 miles west of Wichita, the location is wellknown to
> meteorite
> hunters. A big one crashed there thousands of years ago, scattering 3
> tons of fragments, according to the American Museum of Natural
> History.
>
> The Brenham site was presumed to have been tapped out long ago.
>
> But Arnold, who had been hunting for 13 years without a big score,
> decided to gamble on new technology and an informed hunch.
>
> He re-plotted the presumed path of the Brenham meteorite after
> concluding that an impression believed to be an impact crater was
> actually a "buffalo wallow," a low spot where the beasts would roll
> around in mud and water. At least, that's how the Macovich collection
> put it in a promotional release.
>
> Arnold was coy.
>
> Asked just what persuaded him there was more to be had from the
> site, he
> drummed his fingers nervously on a tabletop. Gaps stretched between
> his
> words.
>
> Arnold, who wears a "Meteorite Recovery Team" cap depicting a falling
> star, was equally circumspect about his current meteorite hunt.
>
> "Top secret," was all he said.
>
> Arnold and Phil Mani, a San Antonio lawyer and meteorite collector who
> bankrolled the Kansas search, bought the meteorite rights to several
> sections of farmland to protect any finds.
>
> Then Arnold started sweeping the field.
>
> Dragging a frame-mounted metal detector behind a fourwheeler, he
> listened through headphones for the telltale screech.
>
> His custom detector is sensitive to depths of 15 feet - sometimes too
> sensitive. Working his way through the wheat, he had to stop every 100
> feet or so to dig.
>
> He unearthed a coyote trap, horse shoes, pliers and a ring for a
> bull's
> nose before he found his stone.
>
> On the heels of his discovery, scientists from the Houston Museum of
> Natural Science descended on the site. Using a ground-penetrating
> radar
> system developed to search for water on Mars, the team found a 154-
> pounder.
>
> The museum plans to feature it in its planned "Great Balls of Fire !"
> exhibit, said Carolyn Sumners, vice president for astronomy and
> physics.
>
> Arnold has had his meteorite on a tour of museums and exhibitions
> between Fort Worth and Kansas City during the two years since his
> discovery. Dragging it in a U-Haul behind his bright yellow Hummer,
> he's
> also made two trips to Tucson's annual gem and mineral show, a must-go
> for serious collectors and dealers.
>
> Arnold also has returned to Kansas. But the tornado that swept down
> the
> prairie last spring, killing 10 people and leveling Greensburg,
> damaged
> the house that he bought for his extended hunts. Then the city knocked
> it down as part of the cleanup.
>
> "My house survived the F-5 tornado," Arnold said, "but it didn't
> survive
> the Caterpillar D 5 bulldozer." As a full-time meteorite hunter,
> dealer
> and broker, he has traveled as far as the deserts of Oman. In the last
> year, he said, he prospected five new destinations. All were dry
> holes.
> "I'm at a crossroads," Arnold said. "A lot depends on what happens at
> the auction. Hopefully, it will fund me to do some other exotic
> stuff."
> Who will put up cash for a 1,400-pound meteorite? "I think many
> people, for the right price, would buy that rock," Sumners said.
>
> Derek Sears, director of the University of Arkansas Space Center, said
> museums have plenty of Brenham pieces already. But he agreed that
> Arnold's meteorite is "a very rare and very interesting type." Fewer
> than 1 percent of meteorites are pallasites - chunks of iron-nickel
> alloy containing olivine, the mineral that produces the
> semiprecious gem
> peridot.
>
> Pallasites have been selling between $ 5 and $ 20 a gram for small
> samples, said Max McCoy, an author who teaches journalism at Emporia
> (Kan.) State University and has followed Arnold's discovery for a book
> he's writing about the Brenham meteorite. It's impossible to
> extrapolate
> per-gram prices to a piece that weighs more than half a ton.
>
> "But what is indisputable," said McCoy, who plans to use the
> auction as
> the last chapter of the book, "is that these pallasites are worth
> quite
> a bit of money."
>
> Although Arnold has the largest stake in the meteorite, he is not the
> only one awaiting the auction with high hopes.
>
> Mani has a share, as does Allen Binford, the 78-year-old farmer who
> sold
> the rights to hunt for meteorites on his farm.
>
> Binford has thought he was close to a big payday before. At one of the
> Tucson shows, he recalled, "We had a meteorite guy there who looked at
> it, and he said, 'That's worth $22 million.' We told him we'd take a
> check anytime," he said, chuckling.
>
> Bonhams & Butterfields estimates the value at $ 630, 000-$ 700, 000,
> according to a release posted on the Macovich collection's Web site. A
> spokesman for Bonhams & Butterfields did not return calls for comment.
>
> Early on, Arnold embraced $ 1 million as a satisfying price. But he
> admits his shopping of the rock hasn't produced tangible results.
>
> "Suffice it to say, nobody's had an offer we were willing to take," he
> said.
>
> But he's confident it will find a buyer next month. Arnold has no idea
> who it might be. He's just hoping something big comes out of the blue.
>
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Received on Mon 24 Sep 2007 06:26:26 PM PDT