On April 3, 1984 at 6:30 P.M., a large mass burst into Earth’s atmosphere and became a blazing fireball over northeastern Nigeria. The meteorite landed in a cornfield, and the local citizenry broke the meteorite into numerous pieces which were carried away as talismans. Gujba is an exceedingly exotic coarse-grained bencubbinite of which only a handful are known — and it’s the only observed bencubbinite fall. As would be expected, it’s the most pristine bencubbinite known. Coincidentally, it’s also pristine in a cosmic sense: from the moment of its formation, Gujba experienced the least amount of impact-induced crushing and brecciation in interplanetary space of any bencubbinite known — and thus its unique and riveting orbicular presentation. Gujba is believed to have formed within an impact plume caused by a cataclysmic collision on a chondritic asteroid billions of years ago. Large ellipsoidal metal nodules and even-larger silicate nodules consisting of fine-grained fan-like arrays of pyroxene are plainly evident.

Far more rare than samples of the Moon and Mars, bencubbinites represent only 0.03% of all meteorites and of the 23 documented examples, 17 have a total weight of only a bit more than three kilograms. Now offered is an artifact from the early history of our solar system, a choice complete slice from what is among the rarest, most beautiful and entrancing meteorites known.

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.

75 x 65 x 2mm (3 x 2.5 x 0.1 in.) and 36.13 grams