Like most iron meteorites, Gibeon meteorites originated 4.5 billion years ago from the molten core of an asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter whose shattered remains are part of the asteroid belt. Unlike most meteorites, this compelling sculptural form encompasses every desirable attribute of an iron meteorite.

This meteorite evidences regmaglypts resulting from frictional heating during its fiery entry through Earth’s atmosphere. The largely flat reverse is the result of this meteorite having cleaved along a crystalline plane. The deepest of the scoops is the result of water having collected in small basins during the meteorite’s earthly residence and slowly broadening over a period of thousands of years into the sculptural form now seen.

It was an impact event between two asteroids that ejected what were to become Gibeon meteorites into interplanetary space, a journey that ended when the wandering mass plunged through Earth’s atmosphere before exploding and slamming into what is now the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. In previous generations, indigenous tribesmen recovered small meteorite shards at or near the surface and fashioned them into spear points and other tools. This specimen was recovered with the aid of a metal detector. Most iron meteorites display a metallic iron-nickel latticework, known as a Widmanstätten pattern; the presence of which is diagnostic in the identification of an iron meteorite. Oftentimes iron meteorites from the same asteroid will exhibit a similar pattern. If this meteorite were to be cut — which should never be the case — its interior would look like the Gibeon end piece also offered in the present sale (see lot 53).

Draped in a variegated gun metal-hued patina with ochre accents, the final form seen here is the product of a combination of 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 in the Kalahari Desert. Originating from the core of an asteroid and shaped by forces both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, this deceptively massive conversation piece from interplanetary space enthralls from multiple perspectives and is the quintessence of an iron meteorite.

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 211 x 195mm (12.5 x 8.33 x 7.66 in.) and 37.28 kg (82 lbs)