THE MARS CUBE — THE FIRST INTERPLANETARY COLLECTIBLE, Zagami Martian Meteorite – SNC Zagami Rock, Nigeria

A sterile vial contains 1/10 carat of pharmaceutically milled particles of the Zagami Martian meteorite suspended in a Lucite cube. The sample from which these Zagami particles are derived was studied by NASA.
This lot is accompanied by a twenty page “Mars Owner’s Manual”
Lucite Cube: 65 mm. (2½ in.)

Material from the Martian surface. “Planet Mars: The Collector’s Cube” is the first interplanetary collectible. This limited edition was created and launched on QVC in 1997. Particles of the Zagami Martian meteorite sealed in clear glass vials are seen suspended in Lucite cubes. The Mars Cube is accompanied with a numbered and signed certificate of authenticity and a comprehensive twenty-page “Mars Owner’s Manual.” The cubes were believed to have all been sold and none have been offered for sale in more than a dozen years. A cache of cubes, however, was recently discovered in a storage locker providing the current opportunity. On October 3, 1962, a farmer in Zagami, Nigeria was nearly struck by a 40-pound meteorite as it plumm.eted towards Earth. Pointing to a planetary origin, the specimen had an unusually young crystallization age, contained water-bearing minerals, and evidenced a planetary-sized gravitational field on its crystalline structure. The New York Times reported in 1995 that gas trapped in tiny bubbles within the Zagami matrix was found to match the composition of the Martian atmosphere (as determined by the Viking lander in 1976). Zagami is one of only five witnessed falls of Martian meteorites, which arrived on Earth as a result of a large asteroid slamm.ing into Mars and ejecting material from the Martian surface into an Earth-crossing orbit.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalog note.