Hot Rocks From Red Planet on Auction Block

NEW YORK —  Even in New York, these rocks are pricey chunks of real estate. But then, what’s a brownstone on Park Avenue when you can own a piece of Mars?

When three small martian meteorites go on the auction block here Wednesday, the man greasing the skids boasts they’ll sell for $1.5 million, $2 million, maybe more.

“These will probably go down in history as the three most precious pieces of stone that were sold by man,” the mysterious figure who owns them said in a telephone call. Neither he nor Guernsey’s auction house, which is arranging the sale, will reveal his identity.

Guernsey’s bills the rocks as the world’s only private collection containing all three types of martian meteorites. There are only 12 such meteorites known to exist in the world, and most pieces of them are held by museums, governments and research institutions. But private enthusiasts also have a hand in what’s always been one of the most bizarre collectors’ markets around.

The market for meteorites was already picking up this summer when NASA scientists announced that they’d found signs of life in Allan Hills 84001, a chunk of martian rock discovered in Antarctica 12 years ago.

Since then, prices have gone sky-high. Every millionaire on Earth seems to want a little piece of the Red Planet, and meteorite collectors and dealers have watched with mixed glee and terror as their arcane little hobby became a precious commodity.

“This whole market has been in such a tizzy . . . you can ask almost any price you want,” says Blaine Reed, a meteorite dealer based in Durango, Colo. “It’s a little scary.”

Arlan Ettinger isn’t frightened. The president of Guernsey’s, who has sold Cuban cigars, Elvis Presley’s clothing and antique carousel ponies, is pushing his wares as if they were the Hope diamond, crown jewels and Jackie O’s engagement ring rolled into one.

“Anything else would pale next to it,” Ettinger says.

Which is why he’s decided to present the three meteorites as the sole lot in the auction.

The $20 catalog, which must be purchased to gain admission, puts the meteorites’ value at $1.5 million to $2 million, which is high by anybody’s standards. Reed guesses the pound of rock is worth something in the neighborhood of $680,000, and other experts say only that they aren’t worth anywhere near $1 million.

But that doesn’t mean somebody won’t pay that much--or more.

“We’ve seen nothing but the value of the Mars meteorites go up, all the way back to Mars,” meteorite dealer Robert Haag of Tucson said giddily when he heard of the impending auction.

Haag doesn’t think the auction is such a big deal, however, because, for one thing, the three rocks don’t really represent the full range of martian meteorites. Most geologists put the dozen known meteorites in four or five different classes, not the three delineated when such meteorites first were discovered.

Collectors can’t get their hands on the additional types, though, because the U.S. and Japanese governments own all of the martian meteorites that fall into those classes and can’t legally sell them.

“Basically, all of us are shy of a full set,” Reed says.

Guernsey’s isn’t the first house to offer meteorites at auction. That distinction belongs to Phillips, which plans to offer four more martian specimens Dec. 14.

And, technically, the three rocks being offered by Guernsey’s don’t constitute the only privately held collection containing the three classic martian meteorite types, as the auction house claims. Reed says he has tiny grains of all three types in his own collection.

Never mind that, though. The most provocative thing about the meteorites on the block is Ettinger’s claim that one of them could contain signs of life.

“The composition is almost identical, so there is every reason to believe that what might exist or what does exist in the Allan Hills meteorite is present in this specimen,” he says.

Well, maybe or maybe not. The magic microbial meteorite NASA scientists touted this summer is nothing like any other meteorite ever found--literally in a class by itself. But the putative evidence of life found in that meteorite also could show up in another type of meteorite, says Gary Huss of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. So it could be that all three of the meteorites offered for sale contain signs of life.

The largest of the three specimens on Guernsey’s block, the shergottite, is grayish-green, palm-sized and covered on one side by what geologists call a fusion crust. The rough, black rind of material is produced when rock melts due to the frictional heating of the meteorite as it hurtles through the atmosphere.

The shergottite is a one-pound piece of a meteorite that fell on Zagami, Nigeria, in 1962. About 44 pounds of the Zagami meteorite are accounted for, so the specimen in question represents about 2% of the world’s known supply.

The nakhlite is a piece of a meteorite that broke up over Alexandria, Egypt, in 1911, raining down on the city in fragments weighing up to four pounds. One of the pieces hit and killed a dog, in the only recorded case of death by meteorite impact.

The smallest specimen, the chassignite, is the real prize. It fell on a French village in 1815 and broke into about 40 pieces--many of them unaccounted for--before hitting the ground. The fragment up for auction is the color of beach sand, and about the size of an adult’s big toe.

“That’s pretty substantial,” Reed says. “My Chassigny is just crumbs.”