A Martian meteorite, weighing 54.388 pounds, said to be the largest piece of Mars on Earth, is displayed at Sotheby’s in New York City on July 9, 2025. Richard Drew/AP Photo
The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth was sold for just over $5 million at an auction of rare geological and archaeological objects in New York on Wednesday. But a rare young dinosaur skeleton stole the show when it fetched more than $30 million in a bidding frenzy.
The 54-pound rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles to Earth, according to Sotheby’s. The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million.
