24-kilogram Martian meteorite auctioned for record price

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The largest Martian meteorite ever discovered on Earth has been sold at a Sotheby’s auction for more than $5 million, the auction house reported.

The hammer price of the lot was $4.3 million, but with additional fees and expenses, the final amount paid by the buyer totaled approximately $5.3 million. Initial estimates for the sale ranged between $2 million and $4 million.

The meteorite, named NWA 16788, was discovered by a meteorite hunter in the Sahara Desert in Niger in November 2023. Weighing 24.67 kilograms, it is about 70 percent larger than the next-largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth.

Before being auctioned, NWA 16788 was publicly displayed at the Italian Space Agency in Rome and a private gallery in Tuscany.

According to Sotheby’s, the meteorite is coated in a reddish-brown crust created by melting during its descent. Its surface also features regmaglypts—small depressions formed by friction as it passed rapidly through the Earth’s atmosphere. Minimal changes in its physical and chemical composition suggest it arrived on Earth relatively recently.

For comparison, earlier this year, the iconic bird logo removed from Twitter’s former San Francisco headquarters after Elon Musk rebranded the company as X was auctioned for nearly $35,000.