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$5M Moon Rock Stolen From Malta Museum
$5M Moon Rock Stolen From Malta Museum
$5M Moon Rock Stolen From Malta Museum POSTED: 10:49 am EDT May 21, 2004 VALLETTA, Malta -- A tiny moon rock believed to be worth about $5 million was stolen from a museum in Malta, 30 years after President Richard Nixon donated it to the Mediterranean island nation. The theft from the Museum of Natural History in Mdina was discovered Tuesday during a routine check, officials said. A protective cover of plastic had been forced open to take the rock, which was the size of a raisin. The rock was picked up in a lunar valley named Taurus-Littrow during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the last of the Apollo moon-landing missions. It was one of many moon samples given to nations of the world by the United States. The exact value of the rock wasn't known but a similarly sized moon rock in Honduras, from the same Apollo mission, is worth about $5 million. That rock was stolen sometime between 1990 and 1994 and was recovered in 1998 after a sting operation. A Maltese flag displayed next to the rock -- which the U.S. astronauts had taken up with them -- was not taken. "The problem the thieves have is what to do with it," Joseph Richard Gutheinz, a retired NASA agent who helped recover the Honduras rock, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "They can try to sell it to private collectors or if they're sufficiently dumb, at an auction house." There are no surveillance cameras and no custodians at the Museum of Natural History because of insufficient funding. The only attendant is the ticket-seller. http://www.local6.com/news/3331356/detail.html |
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On or about 21 May 2004 15:58:08 -0700, Rusty B
made the sensational claim that: VALLETTA, Malta -- A tiny moon rock believed to be worth about $5 million was stolen from a museum in Malta, 30 years after President Richard Nixon donated it to the Mediterranean island nation. Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? -- This is a siggy | To E-mail, do note | Just because something It's properly formatted | who you mean to reply-to | is possible, doesn't No person, none, care | and it will reach me | mean it can happen |
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"LooseChanj" wrote in message . .. On or about 21 May 2004 15:58:08 -0700, Rusty B made the sensational claim that: VALLETTA, Malta -- A tiny moon rock believed to be worth about $5 million was stolen from a museum in Malta, 30 years after President Richard Nixon donated it to the Mediterranean island nation. Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? Probably what it's insured for. Yes, it's probably pretty arbitrary. -- This is a siggy | To E-mail, do note | Just because something It's properly formatted | who you mean to reply-to | is possible, doesn't No person, none, care | and it will reach me | mean it can happen |
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"LooseChanj" wrote in message
. .. On or about 21 May 2004 15:58:08 -0700, Rusty B made the sensational claim that: VALLETTA, Malta -- A tiny moon rock believed to be worth about $5 million was stolen from a museum in Malta, 30 years after President Richard Nixon donated it to the Mediterranean island nation. Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? Cost of Apollo program devided by the mass of the rock? -- Alan Erskine We can get people to the Moon in five years, not the fifteen GWB proposes. Give NASA a real challenge |
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How would a thief prove to a prospective buyer that the rock he has is a
genuine moon rock? Maybe this rock will be mentioned in spam email. |
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On Sat, 22 May 2004 04:51:20 GMT, "Mike Rhino"
wrote: How would a thief prove to a prospective buyer that the rock he has is a genuine moon rock? Maybe this rock will be mentioned in spam email. What do thieves do with famous stolen paintings? Sometimes a painting ends up in some millionaires private art collection and reappears years later, after the collectors death. Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth each paid $ 20-million dollars for a ride into space. Is it possible some other millionaire space buff would like a moon rock for his personal collection? - Rusty Barton |
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LooseChanj wrote in message news:
Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? $5 million was the asking price by a Miami businessman whose Honduran moon rock was allegedly smuggled into the U.S. and was subsequently confiscated when he tried to sell it to undercover agents: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-062902a.html -- Robert Pearlman, Editor collectSPACE - The Source for Space History & Artifacts http://www.collectspace.com/ |
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LooseChanj wrote: On or about 21 May 2004 15:58:08 -0700, Rusty B made the sensational claim that: VALLETTA, Malta -- A tiny moon rock believed to be worth about $5 million was stolen from a museum in Malta, 30 years after President Richard Nixon donated it to the Mediterranean island nation. Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? By God sir...I would have thought you would have known...the moon rock was set inside of a jewel-encrusted solid gold model of the Eagle Lunar Lander...yes....no mere plastic stand was used for the display of the.....Maltese Moon Rock! Now if I can just pry it from the clutches of the man who took it...a former employee of mine named Joel Cairo... Casper Gutman |
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Rusty B wrote:
$5M Moon Rock Stolen From Malta Museum $5M Moon Rock Stolen From Malta Museum Stand ready for the sequel "The Maltese Moonrock", featuring a CGI Humphrey Bogart reviving his famous role as Sam Spade, hunting down what seems to be a worthless moonrock turning out to be some precious jewel after scratiching off all that dirt. Harald |
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On 21 May 2004 23:44:55 -0700, (Robert
Pearlman) wrote: LooseChanj wrote in message news: Where in the world did they get the "$5 million" figure from? $5 million was the asking price by a Miami businessman whose Honduran moon rock was allegedly smuggled into the U.S. and was subsequently confiscated when he tried to sell it to undercover agents: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-062902a.html ....Yes, but what was *your* cut going to be in this? :-) :-) :-) :-) OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
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