Moon dust is back in the news. On September 14, 2016, we wrote in Kovels Komments that Nancy Carlson bought a bag that held some moon dust and was arguing with NASA about who owned it. She made one bid at the online Gaston & Sheehan auction that was selling unwanted artifacts for the government and won the bag, plus a launch key and a headrest. Carlson looked up identifying numbers, sent the bag to NASA for testing, and when NASA refused to send it back, she sued. She won and went with security guards to pick it up. The judge ruled that Carlson was the legal owner of the bag. Poor paperwork and careless handling of artifacts by NASA didn’t fully explain how the bag got misplaced and sold. But, the auction was legal. Carlson plans to sell the moon dust, probably worth over $2 million. It will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on July 20. It pays to learn all you can about an auction item. Sometimes a treasure is waiting to be found.
I believe the only reason Carlson won the case was because NASA SOLD her the dust. There was a recent situation where a woman was left a moon rock by her deceased husband, who had worked for NASA and was given the moon rock by NASA. She was desperate for money and tried to sell it and NASA came down on her like a ton of bricks, even though she asked them in advance if it was okay (!), because federal law says no one can own lunar samples but NASA. There are other samples out there that NASA has given to people in the past, like, I think, Carl Sagan, but they apparently expect to get them back if the recipient passes away. Just thought I’d warn the readers!