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Sotheby's
# Dust in your eyes
Dust from the first moon landing bought for €900 could sell for €3.5 million
A woman bought the bag at an auction.
IT’S NOT STARDUST, but moon dust that an Illinois woman is hoping to cash in on.
Nancy Lee Carlson bought a bag of moon dust, brought to earth by Apollo 11 astronauts, for $995 (€900) at a 2015 government auction.
After she sent it to Johnson Space Center for authentication, officials deemed it government property and confiscated it.
The government said the “rare artifact” was mistakenly sold.
It was recovered in 2003 during a criminal investigation against a Kansas space museum director and misidentified.
But a federal judge ruled in December that the moon dust belonged to Carlson.
Now it’s set to go to the highest bidder, with Carlson getting the proceeds.
Sotheby’s auction will take place July 20, the 48th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11. They say that the bag is expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million (€1.7 million – €3.5 million).
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