Surprisingly dense, this meteorite exhibits the finely stippled surface characteristic of finer Campo del Cielo meteorites. With a bright chrome patina with charcoal hued accents, this complexly shaped mass is accented with thumbprint-like sockets, some of which contain patches of fusion crust — a sought-after artifact of frictional heating acquired when the meteorite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere thousands of years ago. Accompanied by a custom armature.
111 x 133 x 81 mm. (4⅓ x 5¼ x 3 in.) and 4,026 g. (8¾ lbs)

Originating from an asteroid residing between Mars and Jupiter, an alluring and robust softball-sized meteorite. Campo del Cielo (“Valley of the Sky”) meteorites are the result of a cataclysmic collision between two asteroids traveling at cosmic velocity in interplanetary space. The Campo material was blasted off its parent asteroid by this impact and sent on a collision course with Earth. It plunged into our atmosphere more than 4,000 years ago, resulting in explosive fragmentation; thousands of meteorites rained to the ground. The larger meteorites struck at such high velocity that an array of at least 26 impact craters formed, the largest, a football field across.

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.