NPR's Robert Siegel Wonders How Heritage Auction House Can Sell a Rock for Five Figures

By Robert Wilonsky Wed., May 13 2009 at 8:00 AM

Categories: News

Courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

The Garza Stone

This weekend, Unfair Park's across-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Galleries holds yet another of its dino-bone and space-rock sales, a fairly regular occurrence over there. But this one got the attention of National Public Radio: All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel can't understand why someone will likely pay more than $50,000 for nothing more than a rock -- the rock in this instance being the famous "Garza Stone," so named for the Park Forest, Illinois, family whose house the meteorite smashed into at 11:30 p.m. on March 26, 2003. Says Siegel, sort of bemused by the price tag, "It's a rock." Says a rather unamused David Herskowitz, director of the natural history section at Heritage , well, no, they're more than rocks. "They hold the key to life on this planet."

And speaking of Heritage and meteorites, this addendum: The auction sent word yesterday that the first 100 kiddos, between 7 and 13, who show to Heritage HQ Saturday for the auction preview will get a free meteorite fragment. Heritage says the giveaway gets going at noon, though, I can tell you from previous experiences, those so interested need to show much earlier. And when they say "fragment," imagine something that looks like a loose tooth filling.

Oh, and that Dr Pepper Pepsin Bitters recipe goes on sale today. But Heritage's Tom Slater says that according to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, "The 'Dr. Peppers Pepsin Bitters' recipe represented in this notebook is not the formula for Dr Pepper, but is instead a medicinal recipe for a digestive aid." At my folks' house, that is Dr Pepper.

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