12. WILLAMETTE METEORITE—COMPLETE SLICE
IRON-UNGR
Clackamas County, Oregon
Found 1902 / 15.5 tons
Similar to the previous lot but far larger.
In what is among the rarest collecting opportunities, now offered is a specimen of a conspicuously missing section of a centerpiece exhibit in a world-renowned museum.
Willamette was featured at the World’s Fair in the early 1900s and was acquired by Mrs. William Dodge who donated it to the AMNH. The Willamette meteorite has been the centerpiece of the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium since it opened and an estimated 50 million people have seen or touched Willamette during its 120+ years of Museum exhibition. In 1997, a 13 kg crown section was cut from the main mass to reveal the meteorite’s unique internal structure. An anomaly was noticed by Darryl Pitt who advised UCLA cosmochemists John Wasson and Alan Rubin of the same — which resulted in Willamette’s ungrouped iron reclassification.
Removed from the same section, now offered is a choice complete slice of not only the largest American meteorite but one of the most famous meteorites in the world, the Willamette meteorite at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.
115 x 80 x 1mm (4.5 x 3 x 0.1 inches) and 61.8 grams.
Provenance:
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Estimate $10,000 – 14,000 * Reserve $8,500