Posted on 12/18/2016 12:40:38 PM PST by nickcarraway
A bag used to collect lunar samples during the first manned mission to the moon legally belongs to an Illinois woman who bought it for $995 when it was mistakenly sold during a government auction, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge J. Thomas Marten, of the U.S. District Court in Wichita, said he doesn't have the authority to reverse the sale of the bag used during the Apollo 11 moon mission in July 1969, even though it shouldn't have gone up for auction.
The white bag, which has lunar material embedded in its fabric and which the government considers "a rare artifact, if not a national treasure," was mistakenly sold as part of a criminal case against Max Ary, the former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, a museum in Hutchinson. Ary was convicted in November 2005 of stealing and selling museum artifacts, including some that were on loan from NASA.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Good. If I mistakenly sell something valuable for $0.50 at my yard sale, I don’t get to change my mind and get it back. Why should the government?
She should offer to sell it back...At whatever the going rate is for “national treasures.” I’m no expert but I’m thinking the number will be much higher than $995.
Judge bailed on ordering NASA to give the bag back.
Then why didn't NASA donate it to Mecca as part of muzzie outreach?
so i ‘mistakenly’ sell something of yours, it’s too bad for you?
Depends on how you came into possession of it.
“Why should the government?”
The French have an art law that says, in effect, if somebody sold something that is French art we can take it back without paying for it. Several classic cars were legitimately sold over the years and the US government has forced the owners to return them. The owners weren’t even compensated for restoring them. I understand this has happened with paintings and statues, etc.
Damn right.
"It is unclear how much the Apollo 11 bag might fetch if auctioned off again and with the full knowledge of its significance."
Safe to say it would be worth a pant load. If sold in Boston, a "wicked pant load."
No bail for Judges...
“Several classic cars were legitimately sold over the years and the US government has forced the owners to return them.”
Were they classic French cars? How did the US government get involved? I imagine General de Gaulle’s limousine for example would be considered a national treasure! :)
I know a lot of aviators and fly myself. It’s just a white bag!
These were French cars. They went through the State department using international agreements. I don’t know what criteria they used to decide what to go after. One they saw when the buyer paid a record price for it. He was out car and money because the seller was the legitimate owner.
Sell it back for $995,000 plus $29,995 for shipping.
It was found before it was lost.
The judge made the right call.
I’ve got a bag NASA can have if they need one.
Which genius,in what federal department is responsible for giving away our national treasures? They should be prosecuted.
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