When Space Rock Lands, Whose Is It?
STOCKHOLM — The iron rock’s journey from space ended with a thud in a dense pine forest, about an hour north of Stockholm, around 10 on a November night four years ago.
Unusually, its trajectory was caught on several cameras in the region used to track meteoroids. That led to a weekslong hunt and an even longer court battle over an unusual question: Who owns an unearthly object that falls to Earth?
The legal case took another turn on March 21, when an appeals court ruled in favor of the landowner, overturning a decision that had sided with the two men who had recovered it.
Days after the rock landed, Anders Zetterqvist, a geologist, found the site where it first hit the ground. After several weeks of searching, his friend, Andreas Forsberg, a fellow geologist, found the 13.6-kilogram chunk in some moss where it had ricocheted, about 70 meters away. “It was the find of a lifetime for me,” he said.
After a few weeks, the men took the rock to the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where it has been held since 2020. “We were afraid that hundreds of people from all over would show up to search for more,” Mr. Forsberg said.
In the global market of private collectors, one like this could garner tens of thousands of dollars, said Dan Holtstam, a researcher at the museum.
About a week after the geologists went public with their find, the owner of the estate where the meteorite had been found, Johan Benzelstierna von Engestrom, sent a letter to the museum claiming ownership. The legal battle ensued.
In December 2022, the Uppsala District Court ruled in favor of the geologists, deeming the meteorite movable property. “A newly fallen meteorite is not part of the property on which it has landed,” the judge wrote in a statement.
But Judge Robert Green, one of the appeals court judges, said the case turned on two questions: whether meteorites could be considered “immovable” property, and the extent of a Swedish customary law, known as “Allemansrätten,” that provides the right of public access.
Laws applying to immovable property — houses and land — are clear, the judge said.
“The point of departure regarding immovable property is that the landowner has the right to it,” he said in an interview. “But we have no specific law regarding meteorites.”
Allemansrätten entitles everyone in Sweden to move around in nature, including to hike or camp, even on private property. “That includes some right to take berries and even small rocks,” Judge Green said.
The plaintiffs argued that the right to pick up small things could include valuable items.
But Judge Green said in the ruling, “We have made the assessment that the closest thing to hand is to consider meteorites or space rocks as part of immovable property just like other stones, even though it may intuitively feel like a meteorite is something foreign to the earth.” (The landowner said he plans to give the rock to a museum on permanent loan.)