Excited to win this in the Christie’s Deep Impact meteorite auction this week. It came with a tag that read “Extraterrestrial Scat.” A 💩 emoji made manifest!

The auction listing was more lofty:

EVOKING THE SCULPTURE OF KEN PRICE — THE EXOTIC METEORITE MORPHOLOGY OF NWA 13203

This complete stone evidences wildly different characteristics. From one perspective it exhibits one of the more enigmatic shapes of a meteorite ever seen: a seeming layering and intertwining of curved conduits. On the reverse is a long edge of aerodynamic thumbprinting often seen on meteorites, here as a superlative example. In effect, its appearance is primitively biomorphic on one side and decidedly extraterrestrial on the other. A small core sample was taken from the reverse to facilitate analysis and classification. It has a variegated warm-hued patina and metallic flake accents scattered across the surface.

Among the most unusual and enigmatically shaped meteorites on-record, NWA 13203, was found in 2020 in the Sahara Desert by Berber nomads.

Originating from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it is unclear how the meteorite acquired its fascinating shape except to suggest it’s a combination of atmospheric sculpting during its fiery plunge to Earth and the sculpting that occurs once on Earth. There are only a handful of meteorites known to have the particular presentation seen here. Evocative of what would be among the best Ken Price sculptures, the seemingly flexible contoured tube-like morphology is a counterpoint to both the extraterrestrial nature of this material as well as what is seen on the other side: highly articulated oriented regmaglypts.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of meteorites, this specimen plunged to Earth without tumbling or inverting. In what is an extremely rare presentation of a meteorite that appears both primordial and organic, this a notable offering of a meteorite Ken Price would have loved.

NWA 13202, Chondrite – L4
Sahara Desert, North West Africa
110 x 237 x 188mm (4.33 x 9.33 x 7.4 in.)
6.9kg (15.1 lbs)

5 responses to “Space Sculpture”

  1. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Ken Price’s Izzy as auctioned by Christie’sand some Surface Detail from mine… The other sideOriented Regmaglypts

    Reply
  2. tex.the.naturalist Avatar
    tex.the.naturalist

    Great Piece!

    Reply
  3. NIXIP Avatar
    NIXIP

    Looks like extraterrestrial S…t. Very interesting 😊

    Reply
  4. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    a 💩 emoji made manifest!

    And I just came across a description of this very stone in the WSJ:

    "Meteorites can also be seen as natural works of art. In an essay accompanying the sale, Mr. Hyslop notes that a stone meteorite found less than a year ago by Berber nomads in the Sahara desert resembles the work of the American sculptor Ken Price, whose abstract works are made out of fired clay. The meteorite might have acquired its unusual tubular shape during its outer-space journey

    People have collected meteorites since the 18th century, but prices languished for most of the 20th century, according to James Hyslop, head of the Science and Natural History department at Christie’s. He says that interest in meteorites rose dramatically after the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park,” which created new demand for dinosaur fossils and other ancient
    collectibles."

    To give an idea of how the market has changed since 1990, longtime collector Darryl Pitt cites iron meteorites found near the town of Gibeon in Namibia’s Kalahari Desert. They sold for as little as $16 a kilogram in the early 1990s, but then prices began to rise: “I kept the meteorites I coveted and quickly flipped the specimens I didn’t want for $25 per kilo, and I thought I was a genius.” Today, Mr. Pitt says, “the most shapeless Gibeon meteorite will sell for $850 per kilogram. Aesthetic specimens—which I liken to natural sculpture from outer space—sell for far more.”

    Behind the price-tag talk, meteorite-lovers frequently display a sense of gravity (not the Newtonian kind) about the age of these objects. As Mr. Hyslop says “It’s quite humbling when you hold these things. It’s the oldest thing you can touch.”

    Reply
  5. subarcticmike Avatar
    subarcticmike

    thank you! for sharing marvelous meteorites with the Earth Science Teaching Resource group

    do let us know if you should write what would be a well-illustrated book about celestial objects

    Reply

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