Marc Newson and Norman Mailer

Courtesy of TASCHEN

No event has captured the imagination of humanity more powerfully than the Apollo 11 lunar landing, which was the subject of three articles for LIFE Magazine written by Norman Mailer in 1969 and 1970. The first edition of Mailer's serialized essays was published in 1970, titled Of a Fire on the Moon and illustrated with René Magritte's The Invisible World on its cover. To mark the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing, in 2009, Taschen republished Mailer's book in the form of an oversized photo book, and commissioned Marc Newson to create a limited-edition display case. The surface of the case, made from a single piece of aluminum, reproduces in three dimensions the topography of the Moon, while its legs are modelled on those of the Lunar Excursion Module.

Limited to just 12 copies - one for each astronaut who walked on the Moon - the Lunar Rock Edition of MoonFire comes with a unique piece of lunar meteorite.

NWA 5153

Type: Basalt-Bearing Mingled Feldspathic Breccia

Discovery site: North West African corridor

near the Moroccan / Algerian border

Size: 38 x 27 x 23 mm

Weight: 41.88 grams

A rare main mass of a lunar meteorite, this specimen features numerous lunar signatures: It’s a fragmental meltmatrix breccia that contains an assortment of lunar highland lithologies in addition to Mare basalts and glasses. Highland components include cataclastic gabbro and troctolite. Mare components includes ophitic pigeonite and olivine basalts. The specimen is extremely fresh and solid. The cut face of this meteorite exhibits a character of the finest brecciated Moon rocks. Several large anorthositic inclusions are also readily observed on both the obverse and reverse. This specimen is from the Macovich Collection of Meteorites—one of the most acclaimed private meteorite collections in the world. The Smithsonian, The Academy of Sciences in Moscow, The Natural History Museum (London), the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris) and the American Museum of Natural History (New York) all have specimens with a Macovich provenance.

Please note that the online images are for illustration purposes and are not exact representations of the present lot. Please contact the Photographs department directly for additional images.

The Consignor is donating 100% of the hammer price from the sale of this and other designated artworks, to be sold during Sotheby’s Contemporary Discoveries online sale held from September 23 – October 3, 2022, to Instituto Terra, a not-for-profit Brazilian organization devoted to conservation and reforestation. In addition, in relation to these designated artworks, Sotheby’s will donate 100% of its Overhead Premium to Instituto Terra and its Buyers Premium, after deducting expenses. No portion of the purchase price is tax-deductible. For more information about Instituto Terra, visit www.institutoterra.org.