The anger of Niger that a piece of Mars found himself at auction

“Brazen! It’s cheeky!” Professor Paul Sereno says on the Chicago telephone line.

He made no effort to hide his anger that a rare meteorite of Mars discovered two years ago in the West African nation of Niger ended up being auctioned in New York last month to an unnamed buyer.

The paleontologist, who has close ties to the country, believes that he should be back in Niger.

This piece of millions of years on the red planet, the largest ever found on Earth, reported $ 4.3 million (3.2 million pounds sterling) at Sotheby’s. Like the buyer, the seller was kept anonymous.

But it is not clear if one of this money went to Niger.

The fragments of extraterrestrial material that has made their way to earth have long inspired reverence in humans – some find themselves as religious objects, others as curiosities to display. More recently, many have been the subject of a scientific study.

Meteorite trade has been compared to the art market, aesthetics and rarity affecting the price.

At first, there was a feeling of fear surrounding the public display of this extraordinary Martian discovery – less than 400 of the 50,000 discovered meteorites proved to be from our planetary neighbor.

The photographs taken in Sotheby’s from 24.7 kg rock (54 lb) – appearing in the lights to shine silver and red – aggravated this sensation.

But then, some people started asking questions about how it found themselves under the hammer of the auctioneer.

In particular the government of Niger itself, which, in a press release, “expressed doubts as to the legality of its export, which raises concerns concerning a possible illegal international traffic”.

Sotheby is strongly disputed this, saying that the correct procedures have been followed, but Niger has now launched an investigation into the circumstances of the discovery and the sale of the meteorite, which received the scientific and non-romantic name NWA 16788 (NWA for North West of Africa).

He was made public on the way he found himself in a world renowned auction house in the United States.

An Italian academic article published last year said that it was found on November 16, 2023 in the Sahara desert in the Niger Agadez region, 90 km (56 miles) west of the Oasis de Chirfa, by “a meteorite hunter, whose identity has remained unknown”.

Meteorites can fall anywhere on earth, but due to the favorable climate for preservation and the lack of human disturbances, the Sahara has become a privileged place for their discovery. People travel through the inhospitable landscape that extends in several countries in the hope of finding one.

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

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

A team of scientists led by Giovanni Pratesi, professor of mineralogy at university, was able to examine it to find out more about its structure and where it came from. The meteorite was then briefly exhibited last year in Italy, including the Italian space agency in Rome.

It was then seen in public in New York last month, minus two slices that stayed in Italy for more research.

Sotheby’s said NWA 16788 had been “exported from Niger and transported in accordance with all relevant international procedures.

“As with everything we sell, all the relevant documents were in order at each stage of his trip, in accordance with the best practices and the requirements of the countries involved.”

A spokesperson added that Sotheby’s was aware of the information according to which Niger investigates the export of the meteorite and “we examine the information at our disposal in light of the question raised”.

Professor Sereno, who founded the Niger Heritage organization a decade ago, is convinced that the Nigerian law was in charge.

The Academy at the University of Chicago, which has spent years discovering the vast deposits of the country of dinosaurs bones in the Sahara, campaigns to revive the cultural and natural heritage of Niger – including all that fell from space – returned.

A superb museum on an island of the Niger river which crosses the capital, Niamey, is planned to house these artefacts.

“International law says that you cannot simply take something that is important for the inheritance of a country – whether it is a cultural object, a physical article, a natural article, an extraterrestrial object – outside the country. You know that we have gone colonial times where all this was fine,” said Professor Sereno.

A series of global agreements, especially within the framework of the UN cultural organization, UNESCO, has tried to regulate the trade in these objects. But, according to a 2019 study by the expert in international law Max Gounellle, with regard to meteorites, when they could be included, there remains an ambiguity as to whether they are covered by these agreements. It is left to individual states to clarify the position.

Niger adopted its own law in 1997 aimed at protecting its heritage.

Professor Sereno points to a section with a detailed list of all categories included. The “mineralogical specimens” are mentioned among works of art, architecture and archaeological discoveries, but meteorites are not specifically named.

In her declaration on the sale of Sotheby, Niger admitted that she “had not yet had a specific legislation on meteorites” – a line that the auction house also underlined. But we still do not know how someone has been able to release such a heavy and visible artifact from the country without the authorities seeming it apparently.

Morocco has been faced with a similar problem with the large number of meteorites – more than 1,000 – found inside its borders, which include part of the Sahara.

More than two decades ago, the country knew what the author Helen Gordon described as a “Rush to Saharan gold”, partly fueled by Laxer regulations and a more stable political environment than some of its neighbors.

In her recent book The Meteorites, she wrote that Morocco was “one of the largest exporters in the world of space rocks”.

Professor Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane has spent much of the last 25 years trying to keep some of this extraterrestrial material for his country.

“That’s part of us, that is part of our inheritance … It is part of our identity and it is important to be proud of the richness of the country,” the geologist told the BBC.

The professor is not against meteorite trade but has contributed to the introduction of measures to regulate the company. However, she admits that the new rules have failed to stem the flow of meteorites.

In 2011, Professor Chennaoui was responsible for collecting equipment in the desert of an observed meteorite fall which turned out to be March.

Later, named the woven meteorite, he weighed 7 kg in all, but now she says that there are only 30 g left in Morocco. Some of the others are in museums around the world, with the largest piece exhibited at the London Natural History Museum.

Thinking about the fate of the Martian meteorite of Niger, she says that she was not surprised because it is “something I have lived with for 25 years. It’s a shame, we cannot be satisfied with this, but it is the same state in all our countries.”

Professor Sereno hopes that the sale of Sotheby will prove to be a turning point – first by motivating the Nigerian authorities to act and secondly “if it is born in a public museum, (the museum) will have to face the fact that Niger disputes it openly”.