A 179-pound iron, 18-inch tall meteorite evocative of Edvard Munch’s famous masterpiece, The Scream — a version of which sold for $120 million earlier this year, is expected to bring more than $170,000+ itself when it comes across the auction block on October 14 at Heritage Auctions.
“I’ve never seen a meteorite bring a smile to faces as quickly as this one,” said Craig Kissick, Associate Director of Nature & Science at Heritage Auctions, which is holding the event. “The recognition is almost instant and, while this Scream may not bring $120 million, it’s still one of the most unique and interesting specimens on the planet — or in the solar system, for that matter.”
The Scream meteorite, 18 inches tall, is classified as a Gibeon meteorite, and is one of 125 meteorites coming across the block from Heritage, at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America), 2 E. 79th Street, in New York City. It will be the single largest auction of its kind ever held.
The meteorite’s principal features, the three delimiting scoops that so clearly echo the central figure and the swirling river of the painting, were most caused by the inclusions of troilite in the piece that oxidized out of the mass, creating the shallow basins that grew in size over thousands of years that it remained underground in the Kalahari Desert.
