October 28, 2007

Grand Ronde meteorite doesn't sell

Meteorites Get Little Action at AuctionTwo of the world’s most famous meteorites failed to attract buyers at an auction Sunday, while an ordinary metal mailbox zapped by a falling space rock in 1984 was sold for the unearthly price of nearly $83,000.

A 30-pound chunk of the Willamette Meteorite, which was found in Oregon in 1902 and has been steeped in ownership controversies for more than a century, was offered by Bonhams auction house at an estimated value of $1.3 million but was withdrawn from sale after bidding ended at $300,000.
Comment:  I wonder if this is a case of bad karma. You know, no one bidding on the meteorite because they knew it belonged morally to the tribe, not the present owner?

2 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Bad Karma? Hopefully so, as the 'sky stone' no more can be owned by an individual than can any of this land itself. But then again, EuroMan more or less destroyed that concept during the past 500 years, along with the vociferously and defiantly objecting Native tribal people as well. The only thing that EuroMen truly 'own' at this particular juncture of history is ownership of a violently errant and colonialistic society whose 'success' totally is based upon how many of the Columbian Native peoples they have destroyed and then again on how such errant traditions were continued and maintained against the rest of planet Earth, to this time and place. Don't believe that? Hopefully you are not an Iraqi or an Irani or a Pakistani or even a North Korean, as time marches on...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

Can a tribe own a meteorite? Or a building? Or a piece of land?

If no one can own the meteorite, can I have it? I'll give it back when I'm done with it. Thanks!