A tiny white bag labeled ‘Lunar Sample Return’ that Nancy Lee Carlson purchased 2 years ago for almost $1,000 is anticipated to get as much as $4 M at a Sotheby’s auction. This is because the bag is filled with moon dust.
The first person to step on the moon, Astronaut Neil Armstrong loaded a pouch with rocks from the moon during the 1960 Apollo 11 mission. He gave it to a Houston laboratory, which emptied it and then forgot about it. It ultimately ended up on a US Marshals auction website.
Chicago-based attorney Nancy Lee Carlson purchased the bag for $995 and forwarded it to NASA for examination after being in her closet for a long time. NASA claims the pouch belonged to them, and would not give it back until after a lengthy court dispute.
Last February, a judge decided that she had legally obtained the moon pouch and was authorized to have it.
Sotheby is selling the piece this July 20, which is the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing of our human kind. All the bids will be done in person, online and by phone.
But NASA is not happy about it. NASA spokesman Will Jeffs says the pouch must be on public display and not stored away in a private collection.
Carlson said she originally wanted the pouch to be in schools for educational purposes, but once its rareness turned as a national media story, she changed her plans.
The price of the pouch is anticipated to reach sky-high since NASA does not allow anyone to possess any part of the moon, excluding for the pouch.
