On January 3, 1970 at 8:14 pm, Lost City’s descent was witnessed by residents of northeastern Oklahoma. The nine-second fireball was brighter than the Moon and a sonic boom was heard over an area of 1,000 square kilometers. The fireball was also recorded by the Prairie Photographic Network, a constellation of sixteen cameras set up by the American and Canadian governments. The multiple camera imagery facilitated the triangulation of the flight path of the meteorite and the delimiting of the search area. Six days following the fall, the first of four meteorite fragments were recovered 800 meters from the predicted landing site in the middle of a road by a Prairie Network field manager. Not many meteorites have been located by following their paths on film, and Lost City was the first in the U.S. What’s more, its precise orbit before impacting Earth — an ellipse stretching between Jupiter and Venus — was also calculated from the photographs, making this among the first meteorites for which this also occurred.

This partial slice features a long curve of fusion crust; its cut and polished face reveal a gray matrix with metallic clasts scattered throughout. Prized by collectors and available only once in a blue moon, Lost City is one of the most fabled and sought-after American meteorites.

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.


61 x 57 x 2mm (2.5 x 2.25 x 0.1 in.) and 9.96g