Million-dollar rare artifacts up for auction

Geek Week 2025, organized again this year by Sotheby's, one of the world's oldest and largest fine art auction houses, opened its doors to attendees in New York on July 8. The event features a total of 122 rare objects related to natural history, science and technology, and space exploration. The culmination of the event, the live auctions, will take place tomorrow.

THE LARGEST METEORITE TO FALL FROM MARS TO EARTH IS A 150-MILLION-YEAR-OLD DINOSAUR

The centerpiece of Geek Week's auction is the Martian meteorite NWA 16788. This rock, which broke off from Mars and traveled 225 million kilometers before falling to Earth, was discovered by a meteorite hunter in Niger in 2023. Weighing approximately 24 kilograms, the meteorite is one of the largest known Martian fragments and accounts for 7 percent of the total Martian material on the planet. Its estimated selling price is between $2 million and $4 million.

SALES VALUE: 4 TO 6 MILLION DOLLARS

Another standout piece at the auction was a juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton discovered in Wyoming in 1996 and dated to the Late Jurassic Period. This dinosaur, which lived approximately 150 million years ago, has been meticulously reconstructed from more than 140 fossil bones. Sotheby's has estimated the rare skeleton's value at $4 million to $6 million.

The auction's "History of Science and Technology" category includes a working 1976 Apple-1 computer, expected to fetch up to $600,000, while the "Space Exploration" section will feature Buzz Aldrin's personal items from the Apollo 11 mission. The "Popular Space Exploration" sale will feature a variety of flight-acquired artifacts from Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin's personal collection, including a select selection of flight artifacts, photographs of the moon and planets, early models, and much more.

This collection also includes a selection of important scientific and technological works, manuscripts, and original works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries.