Soviet-era moon fragments shoot for the stars at sale

NEW YORK — Wealthy space buffs will have the chance to own three small particles of lunar matter when what Sotheby’s describes as the only known documented “moon rocks” to be legally available for private ownership hit the auction block in November.

Sotheby’s said on Tuesday it expects the fragments, retrieved from the moon by a Soviet space mission in 1970, could fetch between $700,000 to $1 million at the Nov 29 auction in New York.

The pieces — a basalt fragment, similar to most of the Earth’s volcanic rock, and bits of surface debris known as regolith — are being sold by an unidentified private US collector who purchased them in 1993.

Sotheby’s said in a statement they were first sold in 1993 by Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, the widow of former Soviet space program director Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.

The fragments, ranging in size from about 2 x 2 millimeters to 1 x 1mm, were presented to her as a gift on behalf of the Soviet Union in recognition of her late husband’s contributions to the program.

Sotheby’s said that the particles, encased under glass with a Russian plaque, are both the only known lunar samples to have ever been officially gifted to a private party, and with documented provenance to be available for private ownership.

Collectors pay huge sums for space exploration artifacts. Last year, Sotheby’s sold a zippered bag stamped with the words “Lunar Sample Return” laced with moon dust, which was used by Neil Armstrong for the first manned mission to the moon in 1969, for $1.8 million.