Soviet-Collected Moon Rock Samples

Three moon rock samples from Luna-16, the first automated sample retrieval from the moon, housed beneath glass within a 2 by 2 inch metal block positioned below an adjustable lens, the entire fixed to a 612 × 312 inch metal base labeled "H -16" [LUNA-16 SOIL PARTICLES]. Glass coatings generated by age-old meteorite impact on a central shard of basalt with visible feldspar crystals, bordering bigger fragments of finely structured vesicular agglutinates.

The pebbles were donated to Nina Ivanovna Koroleva after her husband, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, died, in appreciation of his efforts as director of the Soviet space program. The pebbles were eventually sold for $442,500 to a Soviet space mission collector before being sold for $855,000 at Sotheby's in New York in 2018.

These samples are governed by regulations governing public gifts, and in most countries, like in the United States, such gifts cannot be transferred to a person. As a result, this is the only documented lunar sample that has been given to a private person.

Price: $855,000