Lot 9
METEORITE
CAMPO DEL CIELO, ARGENTINA, 4.5 BILLION YEARS B.P.
Auction: 8 June 2022 at 14:00 BST
Description
the textured, sculptural form encased in a chrome patina
Dimensions
1.3kg, 9.2cm tall
Footnote
Note:
The Campo del Cielo impactor is believed to have fallen to Earth in what is now northern Argentina around 4,200–4,700 years ago. Its age is estimated to be 4.5 billion years, having formed around the time of the development of the Solar System. Of considerable size, around 100 tonnes have been recovered in modern times. However, its presence appears to have been known in antiquity. In 1576, the Spanish governor in the area commissioned a search party to hunt for the huge mass of iron, which he had learned that native peoples used for their weapons, claiming the mass had fallen from the sky at a site they called “the field of heaven”.