Niger’s anger ends a piece of Mars for auction

“Brezen! This is Brezen!” Professor Paul Sereno says the phone line from Chicago.

He does not try to hide his anger that a rare meteorite from Mars was discovered two years ago in the Niger of the West African nation, an anonymous buyer in New York last month.

Palliontologist with a close relationship with the country believes that it should be back in Niger.

This piece of millions of years of red planet was found to be the largest on Earth, Get $ 4.3m (£ 3.2m) in SothabiLike the buyer, the seller was kept anonymous.

But it is not clear that none of this money went to Niger.

Flour pieces of supernatural materials that have made their way on earth have long -inspired reverence among humans – some are ending as religious objects, as curiosity for others to perform. Recently, many scientific scientists have become the subject of study.

Business in meteorites is compared to the art market, affecting the aesthetics and rare value.

First, this extraordinary martian discovery had a feeling of amazement around the public performance of the discovery – less than 400 of the 50,000 meteorites discovered are shown to come from our planets neighbor.

Pictures taken in the shotbi of 24.7 kg (54LB) Rock – appear in the light for silver and red glow – this feeling complicated.

But then some people started asking questions how it ended under the auctioneer’s hammer.

At least not only the government of Niger, which, which In a statement“Expressed doubt about the validity of his exports, raising concerns about potential illegal international smuggling”.

Sothabi’s strong controversy, stating that the correct procedures were followed, but Niger has now initiated an investigation under meteorite discovery and sales conditions, which has been given scientific and precious name NWA 16788 (NWA for North-West Africa).

Little has been made public about how it ended in a world famous auction house in the US.

One Italian academic article Published in the last year, it was said that it was in Sahara Desert on 16 November 2023, 90 km (56 mi) west of Chirafa Oasis in 90 km (56 mi), “A meteorite hunter, which was unknown”.

Meteorites can fall anywhere on the earth, but due to lack of climate and human disturbances favorable for protection, Sahara has become a major place for their discovery. People earn the inhuman landscape that spreads in many countries in the hope of selling someone.

According to the Italian article, NWA 16788, “was sold by an international dealer by the local community” and then it was transferred to a private gallery in the Italian city of Arezzo.

The magazine of the University of Florence described the individual as “an important Italian gallery owner”.

A team of scientists, led by Mineralji Professor Giovanani Priti at the university, was able to examine it more about its structure and where it came from. Meteorite was displayed in Italy last year last year, including the Italian Space Agency in Rome.

It was publicly seen in New York last month, minus two slices that lived in Italy for more research.

Sothabi stated that NWA 16788 was “exported from Niger and transported to all relevant international procedures.

“Whatever we sell, with it, all relevant documents were in every stage of our journey, according to the best practice and requirements of the countries involved.”

A spokesman said that Sothabi’s reports were known that Niger was investigating the export of meteorite and “we are reviewing the information available in the light raised”.

Professor Sereno, who founded the Niger Heritage Organization a decade ago, is sure that the Nigerian law was broken.

Academic with the University of Chicago, who has spent years spent in Sahara in highlighting the huge deposits of the dinosaur bones, expeditions Niger’s cultural and natural heritage – anything that has fallen from outer space – returned.

A stunning museum on an island on the Niger River, which runs through the capital, niyam, is planned to give homes to these artifacts.

“International law says that you can’t do anything that is important for the legacy of a country – whether it is a cultural object, a physical object, a natural object, a natural object, a supernatural object – out of the country. You know that we have gone from colonial time when all this was fine,” says Profano.

A series of global agreements including UN cultural organization UNESCO have tried to regulate trade in these items. But, According to a 2019 study International law expert Max Gauneley, when it comes to meteorites, while they can be included, there is some ambiguity about whether they are covered by these agreements. It is left in individual states to clarify the situation.

Niger passed his law in 1997 to protect his heritage.

A section is indicated with a detailed list of all categories included in Professor Sereno. “Mineralogical samples” are mentioned between art works, architecture and archaeological discoveries, but meteorites are not specifically nominated.

In his statement on the sale of Sothabi, Niger admitted that it is “not yet a specific law on meteorites” – a line that was also told by the auction house. But it is not clear how a person was able to achieve a heavy, specific artifacts out of the country without a clear notice to the authorities.

Morocco has faced a similar issue with a large number of meteorites – over 1,000 – found within its limits, including a part of the Sahara.

More than two decades ago, the country had experienced that author Helen Gordon described as “Saharan Gold Rush”, which was in part by the lacker rules and a more stable political environment than its neighbors.

In his recent book The Maporites, he wrote that Morocco was “one of the world’s world’s world’s world”.

Professor Hasna Chenoui Oudzen has spent trying to catch some of the supernatural material for his country in the last 25 years.

“This is one of us, it is a part of our heritage … It is part of our identity and is important to be proud of the prosperity of the country,” the geologist tells the BBC.

Professor is not against trade in meteorites, but has played an important role in the beginning of measures aimed at regulating business. She believes that the new rules have not been fully successful in completing the flow of meteorites.

In 2011, Prof. Chenaui was responsible for collecting the material in the desert from an observed meteorite fall that came out of Mars.

Later Tisint Meteorite was named, its weight was 7 kg, but now she says that only 30 grams live in Morocco. Some of the rest are in museums around the world, the largest piece on performance in the Natural History Museum of London.

While reflecting the fate of Niger’s Martian meteorite, she says that she was not surprised because it is “something that I have been living for 25 years. It is a pity, we cannot be happy with it, but it is the same state in all our countries.”

Prof. Sereno hopes that Sothabi sales will prove to be a turn – first by motivating Nigerian authorities to work and secondly, “If it ever sees the daylight in a public museum, [the museum] To deal with the fact that Niger is contesting it openly ”.