A bag said to have been used by US astronaut Neil Armstrong to bring the first samples of moon dust back to Earth has been sold to an anonymous bidder for 1.8 million US dollars.
A bag said to have been used by US astronaut Neil Armstrong to bring the first samples of moon dust back to Earth has been sold to an anonymous bidder for 1.8 million US dollars.
Only a few bidders battled for the item. It sold at a hammer price of $1.5 million. Sotheby’s auction fees were later added to the sale price. The auction in New York on Thursday (July 20) marked the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing.
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The bag, which for years sat unidentified in a box at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, was bought by a person who bid by telephone and did not wish to be named publicly, auctioneer Sotheby’s said.
“For now, I can tell you that the buyer is an American private buyer,” said Sotheby’s Vice President Cassandra Hatton.
“I am very excited about who bought it because I think that they are very much the right person to own something like this. They really appreciate the importance of the artifact. They are just thrilled to have it,” she added.