A 25-kilogram chunk of Mars, the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, is going up for auction on Wednesday at Manhattan’s Sotheby's, with an estimated price tag between $2 million and $4 million.
Known as NWA 16788, the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara Desert near the Niger-Algeria border in November 2023.
According to Sotheby’s, it was blasted off the Martian surface by a massive asteroid impact and then travelled 225 million kilometres before crashing to Earth.
“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chairman for science and natural history.
“It’s more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest.”
A rare slice of the red planet
The hunk of rock (measuring nearly 375 x 279 x 152 mm) is red, brown, and grey and has a glassy surface likely caused by its fiery descent through Earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists analysed a small sample in a specialised lab, confirming it as an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite, a rare type of Martian rock formed from slowly cooled magma.
Only about 400 Martian meteorites have ever been identified among the 77,000 officially recognised meteorites found on Earth.
This single rock represents nearly 7 percent of all known Martian material on the planet.
Previously displayed at the Italian Space Agency in Rome, the meteorite’s exact landing date on Earth remains unclear, though testing suggests it’s a recent arrival. Sotheby’s has not disclosed the current owner.
Jurassic predator joins the auction
Also featured in Wednesday’s natural history-themed auction is a juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton—an imposing Late Jurassic predator.
Discovered in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, the six-foot-tall, 11-foot-long bipedal skeleton has been meticulously assembled from 140 fossilised bones and additional sculpted components.
Estimated to sell for between $4 million and $6 million, the dinosaur is thought to be around 150 million years old. Though smaller than a Tyrannosaurus rex, Ceratosaurus had a similar body structure and is known for the horn on its snout.
The skeleton is being auctioned by Fossilogic, a Utah-based fossil preparation company that acquired and mounted it last year.
Geek Week 2025
Both items are part of Sotheby’s “Geek Week 2025”—a curated auction featuring 122 natural wonders, including rare fossils, meteorites, and gem-quality minerals. The event highlights the growing collector interest in one-of-a-kind scientific and extraterrestrial relics.
