[meteorite-list] $50,787.50

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 17:49:07 -0500
Message-ID: <lcp315hca84qdtgvb1tqf3sflhlmho74ap_at_4ax.com>

What is-- the selling price of the Garza stone, Alex.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/1578763,CST-NWS-meteorite18.article

Collector pays $50,000 for a 5-pound rock
PARK FOREST | Why so high? It's a meteorite that hit a house in '03
Comments

May 18, 2009
BY MARY HOULIHAN mhoulihan at suntimes.com

The Garza stone has a new home.

The five-pound meteorite that crashed into a Park Forest home in 2003 was bought
by a private collector for $50,787.50 Sunday during an auction by Dallas-based
Heritage Auctions.

David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage, says it's the Garza's
provenance that makes it exceptional.

"The added value of this meteorite is that it hit a man-made object," Herskowitz
said. "And that's extraordinary. They usually land in the desert, the ocean or
the polar ice cap and are never found."

The stone was auctioned by collector Adam Hupe of Laughlin, Nev., who bought it
for an estimated $45,000 from Noe Garza, the Park Forest steelworker whose house
it hit. Garza sold the stone when his insurance refused to pay (it was called an
act of God) for the damage to the house.

On March 26, 2003, a massive meteorite, estimated to be the size of a VW Beetle
and weighing up to eight tons, exploded in a fireball over the Midwest. The
fragments that fell to Earth were mostly tiny.

The 4.6 billion-year-old rock that crashed through the Garza roof landed in
14-year-old Robert Garza's bedroom. It was a close encounter from outer space.

"It ricocheted around the room and finally came to rest in the middle of the
bedroom floor," Herskowitz said. "It got a lot of public attention, and that
makes it even more popular with collectors."

Also on Sunday, Heritage auctioned a very rare saber-toothed tiger skull pulled
from a tar pit in Los Angeles. It went for more than $300,000.

Herskowitz says wealthy collectors aren't the only ones who find meteorites,
fossils and dinosaurs fascinating.

"Most people find this sort of thing really cool," he said. "We can't get enough
of them. That's the reason natural history museums remain so popular."
Received on Mon 18 May 2009 06:49:07 PM PDT