posted 11-01-2016 10:02 AM               

If you have been holding on to something really spectacular, this is your chance to have it featured in a high-end, world class auction.

posted 05-04-2017 10:20 AM               

Sotheby's is very pleased to be holding two Space Exploration-themed sales, the first since the groundbreaking Russian Space History sales of the 1990s. In the intervening decades, the enthusiasm for Space Exploration has greatly increased, and the collecting field in both American and Russian material has grown dramatically.

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, with a live sale taking place on 20 July, and an online only sale running from 7-21 July, there will be a wide variety of material from both the American and Soviet space programs suited for both new and seasoned collectors — from flown mission artifacts and hardware, items from the personal collections of astronauts and cosmonauts, space photography and signed photographs, maps and charts, signed books, engineering models and other 3-D objects, and much more.

posted 05-20-2017 12:00 AM               

Sotheby's to auction Apollo 11 moon rock bag used for first lunar sample

An Apollo 11 moon rock bag that was at the center of a legal dispute is now set for what could be a record-setting auction.

The moon-dust stained, lunar sample return pouch will be offered as part of Sotheby's first space history-themed sale to be held in more than 20 years. The auction is scheduled for July 20, the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission's historic first moon landing, in New York City.

The zippered bag, which was used to protect the first-ever samples of lunar material collected by an astronaut on the surface of the moon, is expected to sell for $2 to $4 million — potentially more than any space exploration artifact has ever commanded at auction.

posted 05-20-2017 12:10 AM               

When Nancy Lee Carlson discovered an online auction two years ago for moon dust, she couldn't believe her luck. A geology buff, she spent childhood summers scouring for rocks along Michigan's Lake Superior, but wasn't a serious collector. She figured the dust was genuine because it was being auctioned on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

"Ooh boy, that's something I'd love to have," she recalls thinking, remembering the astronauts and spacewalks she watched growing up. The 62-year-old hadn't bid on anything as high as its estimate—$995—but the white, zippered pouch containing the moon dust was bundled in a group with a launch key for the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-14 and a black padded headrest from an Apollo command module. She decided the pieces "had a story I could figure out," so she clicked once and won.

After months of sleuthing that led to a legal showdown with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, she indeed figured it out: The U.S. government mistakenly sold her some of the first moon dust it had ever collected.

posted 05-21-2017 09:36 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by rgarner:
What do you think the probability is of a museum raising enough capital to buy this?

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posted 06-21-2017 10:21 AM               

Printed catalogues should be available around the 27th of June. Please let me know if you would like a copy.

Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

posted 06-28-2017 04:30 PM               

I do not believe a resale of that Buzz Aldrin photo would bring that much again and there are hundreds of items sold that may never resell for the amount paid at auction.

posted 07-18-2017 12:00 AM               

Apollo 11 moon dust-stained lunar sample bag may set sale record at Sotheby's

A small, empty cloth bag is expected this week to rocket past space capsules and a wristwatch worn on the moon to become the most valuable space artifact to ever sell at auction.

Sotheby's on Thursday (July 20) will offer the moon dust-stained "lunar sample return" bag as part of its first auction dedicated to the relics of the United States space program. The sale, which will take place at Sotheby's New York City gallery and on eBay, coincides with the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, on which the bag was used.

posted 07-20-2017 05:59 PM               

Apollo 11 moon rock bag sells for $1.8M at Sotheby's space auction

A cloth bag used to protect the first-ever moon rocks collected by an astronaut on the lunar surface 48 years ago Thursday (July 20) has made history again — this time by selling at auction for more than any other U.S. space program artifact to date.

The sale fell short, however, of commanding the most ever paid for a space artifact overall, closing at a lower hammer price than its pre-auction estimate of $2 to $4 million.

The moon dust-stained "lunar sample return" pouch, which Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong used to store a small "contingency" cache of material from Tranquility Base, sold for $1,812,500 million at Sotheby's New York on Thursday (July 20), the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 first moon landing. The bag's sale was part of Sotheby's first auction to focus on artifacts from NASA's space missions.

posted 07-20-2017 07:16 PM               

The day before the sale, while previewing the lots, I bumped into the son of an astronaut doing the same.

In the post-sale press release, Sotheby's noted that the winning bidder of the Apollo 11 moon rock bag is a private individual and an American. The Apollo 11 flown Beta cloth patch and the Gemini G1C thermal cover layer were each sold to an American institution.

Like others, I was surprised by some of the results, though I believe some of the high prices, like the Lion Brothers patches selling for $4,800, are more a factor of Sotheby's reaching an audience new to space memorabilia.

posted 07-21-2017 12:16 PM               

The hobby will still be here. It will have ups and downs as it always has. I think a lot will be dependent on the status of space travel and what countries are participating. Can you imagine what would happen if interest in collecting sparks in a growing Chinese middle class?

posted 07-21-2017 12:23 PM               

The crisis come and we sell, the better times come up and we buy. The prices go up and down depending on the offering and interest of the market that generally tend to behave in waves – it shrinks till it sparks up and again...