Niger claims rare Mars meteorite was ‘trafficked' out of Africa

Telegraph

5 days ago

Niger has opened an investigation into whether a rare Mars rock was smuggled out of the country before it sold for £3.2m at a New York auction.
The sale of the incredibly rare 24.5kg (54lb) meteorite last month made headlines around the world when it was unveiled as the largest piece of Mars found on Earth.
Yet the government of the land-locked West African nation where it was discovered has questioned how the rock left the country to go under the hammer 5,000 miles away.
A statement on state television said Niger's ministers of mines, higher education and justice had been ordered to investigate the case, 'which likely bears all the hallmarks of illicit international trafficking'.
Sotheby's 'strongly rejects' smuggling allegation
The rock was the star attraction at Sotheby's 'Geek Week' auction in mid-July, and was sold alongside fossils, meteorites and other science and natural history exhibits.
Neither the buyer nor the seller have been named and little has been revealed about who found the meteorite, which is officially known to scientists as NWA 16788.
The auction catalogue only discloses that the reddish-brown rock was found on November 16, 2023 by a 'meteorite hunter' in Niger's remote Agadez region.
Sotheby's strongly rejects the allegation that the rock might have been trafficked and told the BBC that it had complied with all international regulations.
Sotheby's said that NWA 16788 was 'exported from Niger and transported in line with all relevant international procedures.
'As with everything we sell, all relevant documentation was in order at each stage of its journey, in accordance with best practice and the requirements of the countries involved.'
Prime hunting ground
An academic article published last year in a University of Florence magazine said the rock had been found in the Sahara, 56 miles west of the Chirfa Oasis, by 'a meteorite hunter whose identity remained undisclosed'.
The Sahara has become a prime hunting ground for those seeking meteorites, because the climate favours preservation and there has been little human disturbance.
The Italian article said the rock was 'sold by the local community to an international dealer' and was then transferred to a private gallery in the Italian city of Arezzo.
The magazine described the person as 'an important Italian gallery owner'.
Scientists at the university then examined the 15-inch meteorite and it was briefly on display in Italy last year.
'It belongs in a museum'
Only about 400 Martian meteorites have ever been found on Earth, and NWA 16788 accounts for about seven per cent of all Martian material currently known here.
Around a fifth of the meteorite is made up of a glassy material called Maskelynite, created by the intense heat and pressure produced when Mars was hit by an asteroid.
The power of the impact ejected the rock from Mars's surface, hurling it 140 million miles through space before it hurtled through Earth's atmosphere.
The secretive nature of the sale has also raised fears among some scientists that the rock might be held privately, and be unavailable to researchers or the public.
Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist from the University of Edinburgh last month told CNN: 'It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch.
'It belongs in a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large.'
A Sotheby's spokesperson added that the auction house was aware of reports that Niger was investigating the export of the meteorite and 'we are reviewing the information available to us in light of the question raised'.