The seven-inch-long
Icarosaurus siefkeri that reached $167,500.
The much-publicized auction of the oldest airborne vertebrae
known to scientists ended happily for all who had expressed
concern about the incident. In question was the propriety of
Butterfields' offering of the seven-inch-long Icarosaurus
siefkeri August 27 at a live auction in San Francisco and Los
Angeles - and, for the first time, online.
For the then-teenage discoverer Alfred Siefker, now aged 56 and
ill according to the Associated Press, the specimen's earnings
will help meet mounting medical expenses, although its $167,500
hammer price (including buyer's premium) is significantly less
than the firm's $250/350,000 estimate.
For the American Museum of Natural History, where Siefker had
loaned his one-of-a-kind possession, and the paleontological
community as a whole, the Icarosaurus will be returned to the
museum where it was displayed for 30 years. A significant
acquisition, because Seifker's discovery of Icarosaurus proved
that vertebrates attempted gliding flight 10 million years
earlier than previously thought, and 80 million years before
birds flew.
For the real estate developer in San Francisco who outpaced two
other bidders to win the fossil, the purchase was an opportunity
to demonstrate that he is truly a "friend of the American Museum
of Natural History" by announcing his intention to return the
fossil to the museum.
And for Butterfields auction house, the happy ending mitigated
some of the controversy the consignment of Icarosaurus siefkeri
had generated in the scientific community. One vertebrae
paleontologist, Mark Goodwin, who is principal scientist at the
Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley, told the Associate Press that
the sale of the fossil was a "highly unethical event that will
only increase commercialization and encourage the theft of
fossils from museums."
But in a post-auction interview, David Herskowitz, director of
Butterfields' Natural History Department, countered that he has a
policy against selling anything that is "important to science."
In the pre-auction swirl of criticism, he pointed out the fact
that the consignor had loaned the fossil to a museum for 30
years. "This piece has been completely described and studied, and
the museum made a cast of it."
Herskowitz felt that it was ironic to receive complaints about
the auction when the Bergen County, New Jersey site where this
specimen and other Triassic Period fossils were found - the
Granton Quarry - has been covered over by a shopping mall.
This auction retained the traditional live format Butterfields'
patrons have seen for many years, simulcast in San Francisco and
Los Angeles and with phone bidders - with a new element.
"This was the very first auction that we offered people the
option to bid online," Herskowitz says. "We're in the
developmental stages of having online bids during a live
auction."
Although Butterfields is owned by online auction behemoth eBay,
the venerable San Francisco auction house's only foray online so
far has been the content on eBay Great Collections. Herskowitz
notes that the company's live format will remain unchanged, but
accepting online bids means that "Butterfields can really be a
full-service auction house."
In this Natural History auction, only about five items were sold
online, which Herskowitz attributes to two factors.
"It is new. There was some confusion," he says, noting that one
bidder, flummoxed by the online registration procedure, decided
to bid by phone. In addition, the auction itself was not
extraordinary in terms of the percentage of lots sold - 60
percent, or 124 of 200 lots - or prices realized.
"This was not one of my best auctions," Herskowitz admits.
"Usually for natural history, the items go way above the
estimate. It was the time of year, it was August. Most fine sales
don't take place in August. Originally I wanted this in June, but
they bumped me down to August."
Indeed, many top lots sold for less than their estimated prices:
one of the "finest meteorite in the world," estimated at
$60/85,000 sold for $51,750; a four-foot fossil sea lily from the
Jurassic Period, estimated at $35/40,000 went for $34,500; a
"superb" 5-million-year-old saber-toothed tiger skull, estimated
at $35/55,000, was won for $31,625; and an "important" cave bear
skeleton from approximately 300,000 years ago, estimated at
$30/60,000, was a bargain at $23,000.
EVA handle from Apollo 11, $34,500.
The exception was an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) handle from
Apollo 11, which was fixed to the outside of the command module
that guided astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael
Collins into the moon's orbit in 1969. The handle is one of four
handholds used during space walks and as tether posts for
lanyards to secure astronauts or equipment outside the
spacecraft, according to Butterfields.
This one-of-a-kind artifact had been estimated at $20/30,000, and
sold for $34,500. According the Butterfields catalog, "To get any
item from the Apollo Space Program is impossible. Except for this
EVA handle, all equipment used in space missions belongs to the
United States Government, and it is not for sale. In fact, the
only thing that the astronauts own are the flight suits they wore
on their missions."
Charles Barnes, a former radiation safety officer at NASA's John
F. Kennedy Space Center who performed tests on it in the 1970s,
kept the handle in a safe after leaving NASA. NASA is
investigating whether the sale should have taken place, so
Butterfields had to strike a deal with the Office of Inspector
General for NASA before selling the handle.
"Because the NASA inquiry is continuing, there is an additional
conditional of sale that should NASA decide that the item should
be returned to them, we will certainly return funds to the
buyer," said Butterfields spokesman Levi Morgan.
Because the handles were suspected of leaking radiation, the
three others were destroyed. The Apollo 11 Command Module itself
is in the Smithsonian.
This Natural History auction netted $780,000, even though items
such as a well-preserved nest of 15 dinosaur eggs and a
much-touted fuel cell from Russian satellite - "more of a piece
of art," says Herskowitz - didn't sell.
