Thousands of years after landing on Earth, Campo del Cielo (“Field of the Sky”) meteorites were first written about in 1576 by Spanish Conquistadors in Argentina when their unearthly origins were not yet understood. It was a “Campo” that was the first large meteorite ever displayed in a major museum — the British Museum of Natural History — and several large Campo del Cielo masses can be found today in the finest museums in the world.

Campo del Cielo meteorites formed as the result of two asteroids colliding at cosmic velocity in interplanetary space. Campo del Cielo’s internal structure is seen in the next lot. A giant metallic mass from the larger asteroid was blasted into interplanetary space and eventually found its way to Earth. When one of these fragments hit Earth’s upper atmosphere thousands of years ago, the immense pressure exerted on the mass caused it to explode. The larger meteorites struck the ground at such a high velocity that an array of at least 26 craters formed and the largest is a football field in diameter. The 3rd and 4th most massive meteorites on Earth are Campo del Cielo specimens. The modestly sized meteorite now offered is an aesthetic abstract form. A smooth curved surface exhibits a stippled texture draped in a graphite patina with platinum accents. Contrasting the curvilinear surface are the jagged outthrusts hewn from this having been ripped from a larger mass upon undergoing an explosive force equivalent to numerous nuclear bombs — the result of this meteorite hitting Earth’s atmosphere while traveling at a speed of nearly 50,000 mph.

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.

141 x 197 x 90mm (5.5 x 7.5 x 3.5 in.) and 7.111 kg (15.66 lbs)