Now offered is a matchless natural sculpture from outer space. Like the vast majority of iron meteorites, the Gibeon event originated 4.5 billion years ago from within the molten core of an asteroid located between Jupiter and Mars. While traveling at a cosmic velocity of more than 36,000 mph, a second asteroid slammed into the Gibeon parent body and shattered it. Most of the fragmented remains orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt while a few others found themselves in Earth-crossing orbits. The journey through interplanetary space ended when thousands of years ago one of the fragments plunged through Earth’s atmosphere before exploding and slamming into the edge of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. In previous generations, indigenous tribesmen recovered small, metallic shards at or near the surface and fashioned them into spear points and other tools. The specimen now offered was recovered in 1990 with the aid of a metal detector — and unlike most meteorites, this is among the most aesthetic iron meteorites known.

As seen, this meteorite has regmaglypts resulting from frictional heating during its fiery entry through Earth’s atmosphere. The flat surface along the left perimeter is the result of this meteorite cleaving along crystalline planes. The mass is further animated by an elevated ridge angling across the specimen. The large deep scoop is the result of water having collected in what was a more modest basin; during the meteorite’s earthly residence over thousands of years, the basin broadened as the seasons turned. Natural terrestrial sculpting expanded the basin into the form now seen with a great additional rarity for a meteorite of this size: a naturally formed hole (and one well-placed as it regards the specimen’s asymmetry).

Draped in a variegated metallic patina with ochre accents, the final form is the product of a number of serendipitous variables including its composition, its shape upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the chemistry of the soil in which it landed, its orientation in the ground, the amount of groundwater to which it was exposed and the amount of time it sat at the edge of the Kalahari before its recovery — which appears to have occurred at the perfect moment.

Originating from the core of an asteroid and shaped by forces both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, this peerless conversation piece from interplanetary space enthralls from multiple perspectives; while meteorites are rare, meteorites of this pedigree are more-rare still and this is the quintessence of a sculptural meteorite and a centerpiece of any room it occupies.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

317 x 292 x 221mm (12.5 x 11.5 x 8.75 in.) and 31.205 kg (68.75 lbs)