WASHINGTON – The recent auction of a Martian meteorite – for a record-grabbing US$5.3 million (S$6.8 million) at Sotheby’s New York – has sparked questions over its provenance and renewed debate over who gets to claim rocks fallen from the heavens.

The hefty 25kg stone is the

largest Martian meteorite ever discovered on Earth

The government of Niger has announced that it will open an investigation following the auction, saying it appears to “have all the characteristics of illicit international trafficking”.

On Aug 8, the government suspended exports of precious stones and meteorites until further notice.

Sotheby’s has rejected the accusations, insisting that the meteorite was “was exported from Niger and transported in line with all relevant international procedure”.

In the light of the controversy, however, a review of the case is under way, a Sotheby’s spokesperson told AFP.

“The stone journeyed 140 million miles through space, and hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere before crashing in the Sahara Desert,” the Sotheby’s listing said.

Following its discovery, the jagged, ochre-colored stone was then sold to an international dealer, briefly exhibited in Italy, and eventually ended up in the auction catalog in New York.

For American paleontologist Paul Sereno, who has worked closely with Niger’s authorities for years, all signs suggest that the stone left the country “illicitly”.

“Everybody’s anonymous – from the person who found it, the dealers, the guy who bought it, everybody’s a...