Niger’s anger that a piece of Mars ended up for auction

“Fraudual! Brazen!” Prof Paul Sereno says Chicago down the phone line.

A rare meteorite discovered by Mars in the West African country two years ago, did not make any efforts to hide anger in New York last month to open an anonymous buyer.

Paleontologist, who has close connections with the country, believes that he must return to Niger.

Millions of years of red planet parts on earth, Brought 4.3 million dollars (£ 3.2 million) to Sotheby’s. Like the buyer, the seller was kept anonymous.

However, it is unclear whether any of this money goes to Niger.

The extraterrestrial materials that go to the world have long been inspiring among people – some end as religious objects, others are exhibited. More recently, many have become the subject of scientific work.

Meteorite trade was compared with the art market, aesthetics and rarely affected the price.

At first, there was awe of this extraordinary Martian finding surrounding the public indicator – less than 400 out of the discovered 50,000 meteor came from our planetary neighbor.

The photos taken in the Sotheby of the 24.7kg (54lb) rock, which appeared as light to silver and red sparkles, combined this feeling.

But then some people began to ask questions about how the auction appeared under the hammer.

At least the Niger government, which In a statement“expressed suspicions about the legality of exports and expressed his concerns about possible illegal international trafficking.”

Sotheby’nin the right procedures were followed, saying that the right -wing procedures were followed, but Niger now started an investigation into the discovery and sale conditions of the meteorite, which is now NWA 16788 (NWA NWA for North West Africa).

Very little about how it emerged in a world -famous auction house in the United States has been made to the public.

One Italian academic article Last year, on November 16, 2023, 90km (56 miles) in the west of Chirfa Oasis in the Sahara Desert in the Agadez region of Niger, said that it was found by a “an unexplained meteor hunter”.

Meteorites may fall anywhere on the earth, but due to the climate suitable for protection and lack of human condition, Sahara has become the most important point for their discovery. People clean the unfavorable landscape extending to several countries in the hope of finding someone to be sold.

According to the Italian article, the NWA 16788 was “sold to an international seller by the local community” and then transferred to a private gallery in Arezzo in Italian city.

Florence University magazine described the person as “an important Italian gallery owner”.

A team of scientists led by the professor of mineralogy at the university, Giovanni Pratesi, was able to examine it to learn more about his structure and where he came from. Meteorite was later exhibited in Italy for a short time last year, including the Italian space agency in Rome.

Later, the two slices of minus in Italy for more research, open to the public in New York last month.

Sotheby’s, NWA 16788 “Niger was exported and moved in accordance with all the international procedures, he said.

He continued: “As in everything we sell, all relevant documents were held at every stage of his journey in accordance with the best practices and the needs of the concerned countries.”

A spokesman added that Sotheby’s is aware of the reports that Niger has explored meteor exports and that he is aware of the reports of “We are examining the current information for us in the light of question”.

Prof Sereno, who founded the Niger Heritage Organization ten years ago, was convinced that the Nigeren Law was broken.

The University of Chicago, which has spent years to reveal the large dinosaur bone deposits in the country’s Sahara, and the academician, Niger’s campaigns to take Niger’s cultural and natural heritage, including anything falling from space.

A striking museum on an island passing through the capital Niger River Niamey is planned to have these works.

“International law says that you cannot get anything that is important for the heritage of a country – a cultural substance, a physical substance, a natural substance, an extraterrestrial item – outside the country. You know that we have gone through the colonial times that all this is good.”

A series of global agreements, including UN’s cultural organization UNESCO, tried to organize trade in these objects. However, According to the 2019 research Although the international law expert Max Gounelle can be included in the meteorites, there are some uncertainties as to whether these agreements are scope. It is left to individual situations to clarify the position.

In 1997, Niger passed his own law aimed at protecting his legacy.

Prof Sereno refers to a part of all included categories with a detailed list. “Mineralogical Examples” are mentioned among the artworks, architectural and archaeological finds, but meteorites are not specifically named.

In his statement about Sotheby’s sale, Niger admitted that “meteors have not yet had a certain legislation on meteors,” Niger confessed. However, the authorities remain unclear how someone can get such a heavy, striking work outside the country without disagreement.

Morocco faced a similar problem with a large number of meteorite – more than 1,000 – found within the borders of the Sahara.

More than twenty years ago, the country experienced what he described as a “Sahara Gold Rush” which was fueled by the author Helen Gordon, partly by Laxer arrangements and a more stable political environment than some neighbors.

Recently, The Meteorites wrote in Morocco that Morocco was “one of the world’s largest space rocks exporters”.

Prof Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane spent most of the last 25 years trying to hold on to some of these extraterrestrial materials for its country.

“This is a part of our inheritance … It is important to be a part of our identity and proud of the wealth of the country.”

The professor was not effective in bringing measures to regulate the work, not against trade in meteors. Nevertheless, he confesses that new rules are not completely successful in providing the flow of meteorites.

In 2011, Prof Chennaoui was responsible for collecting materials in the desert from a observed meteorite fall from Mars.

He then called Tisint Meteorite, weighing a total of 7 kg, but now he says it was only 30g in Morocco. The rest of them are in the museums around the world with the largest track exhibited in the Museum of Natural History of London.

Thinking about the fate of Niger’s meteorite, “He says he’s not surprised that I have been living together for 25 years. It’s a pity, we’re not pleased, but the same situation in all our countries.”

Prof Sereno hopes that the sale of Sotheby will prove a return point – first of all, motivating Nigeren officials to act and the second “if he sees the daylight in a public museum, [the museum] He will have to deal with the fact that Niger clearly objected. “