Why does the sale of a meteorite cause the anger of Niger?

The largest Martian meteorite never discovered on earth has recently been auction In New York, an event that is not to everyone’s taste, especially of the government of Niger which claims his possession.

An extraordinary discovery

On November 16, 2023, a meteor hunter made an incredible discovery in the remote region of Agadez in Niger. Indeed, he found a meteor of 24,5kg coming straight from the planet Mars during his expedition, making The heaviest of the 400 rocks on the planet Mars found so far on earth.

According to the analyzes carried out on this meteorite, it was projected from the surface of the red planet after a powerful asteroid impact and then would have wandered a time in space before finally falling on our planet. This meteorite is made up of 21.2% of a meteoritic glass called Maskelynite, formed during powerful meteoritic impacts.

Aware of the scarcity of his find, of its importance for the space sciences but above all Its market valuethe meteorite hunter relatively sold his find to an international walker. This was then briefly exposed in Italy before meet in the catalog of auctioneers of the famous auction house Sotheby’s.

This meteorite was finally put on sale on July 16 during an auction in New York, a private buyer obtaining it for a record amount of $ 5 million. If it is not so rare that meteorites find themselves sold at auction, this particular sale is far from unanimous, especially on the side of Niger.

Who does this meteorite belong to?

Following this sale, the government of Niger has indeed announced that it has open an investigation To “shed light on this affair”. Indeed, it claims that this sale has all the characteristics of a illegal international trafficputting for example forward that all the protagonists of this story have remained anonymous.

For his part, Sotheby’s rejects all the charges against him, assuring that the meteorite was ” exported from Niger and transported in accordance with all international procedures in force This means that the sale took place completely lawful.

In addition to doubts about the sale of the sale, Niger also claims the property of this extraordinary meteoritethis having been found on its territory. However, meteorites do not have a real universal legal statuswhich means that their property is governed by international law and by that specific to their point of fall.

In the United States, the property of meteorites returns to the owner of the land if it is private, which is not the case in Niger. In this West African country, however, there are A law protecting its cultural goods, including “rare specimens” of mineralogy And it would be logical according to many scientists that meteorites must be included in this category, which would mean that Niger is well owned by this meteorite.

Pending the results of the current survey, another question deserves to be raised. Is it really wise to sell such a discovery at auction to private buyers?

Indeed, these meteorites have invaluable scientific valuetestifying to the geological history of the red planet and our solar system. According to the researchers, this type of discovery should thus be directly entrusted to scientists specialized Rather than taking the dust in the window of a wealthy person like a vulgar trophy.

Article reference:

A meteor to $ 5 million from March panics the auctions and causes a diplomatic crisisGEO ET AFP, 08/14/2025