www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / Reporter's Journal

Found in China: a hard case of seller's remorse

By Chris Davis | China Daily USA | Updated: 2016-04-20 11:31
Share
Share - WeChat

In our litigious world, legal problems can come out of anywhere, even outer space via the Gobi Desert.

A current lawsuit in California really starts about four and a half billion years ago, when a one-ton hunk of stony iron wandering through outer space, entered Earth's atmosphere and slammed into what is today western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

It was discovered in 2000 outside of the remote town of Fukang, which lent it its name. It was a pretty plain looking space boulder, but cutting it open revealed a dazzling matrix of gold-colored olivine crystals suspended in silvery nickel frames throughout its entire mass. It was what geologists call a pallasite.

Meteorites are rare to begin with, but pallasites, believed to be formed back when the solar system was taking shape, are one in a hundred.

Whoever discovered the Fukang meteorite has remained anonymous but did carve off a 45-pound finder's fee before putting the rest on display at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February 2005.

Over the years, the remainder has been divvied up into slices that have the effect of primordial stained glass or chunks that glitter like jewelry and sold off.

"Its rarity, size and quality combine to make this piece one of the most valuable meteorite specimens in history," Bonhams auction house said of it when they put the largest chunk - 925 pounds - on the block in 2008. (The anonymous collectors were hoping for $2 million but got zero bids.)

A total of 68 pounds are on deposit at the Southwest Meteorite Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Scientists there call it "one of the greatest meteorite discoveries of the 21st century."

You can buy pieces of the Fukang meteorite on the web - a one-ounce chip goes for about $900 on meteorites-for-sale.com and a 3-pound "end cut" fetches $1,400 on yet another rare rocks website.

Novato, California resident Stephen Settgast bought a 220-pound 2.5-inch-thick poster-sized piece of the Fukang meteorite it in 2004, the Marin Independent Journal reports.

Ten years later he decided to sell it and made arrangements with New York-based meteorite dealer Darryl Pitt, who cut a deal with buyers who paid $425,000.

Settgast hired Keith and Dana Jenkerson, a couple living in rural Kansas who polish rocks and gems for collectors to clean up the specimen before delivery. After they had finished their work, they told Settgast that the rock was worth a lot more than he had let it go for - probably double.

Settgast traveled to Kansas, took the slab back and went to court claiming that he was the victim of fraud and breach of contract because broker Pitt had sold the meteorite to Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden, the owners of the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel, Maine.

Settgast's lawyer said the contract stipulated that the slab would be sold to a private collection and, for some reason, not to a museum or exhibit hall.

A lawyer representing Pitt and the buyers denied Settgast's allegations and countersued. "After the meteorite was cleaned and polished, the Jenkersons stated, inaccurately, that the meteorite was now worth $1 million," attorney Jeffrey Valle wrote in his filing late last month. "Settgast decided he now wanted the meteorite for himself and, in an outrageous act of seller's remorse, he decided to steal it back."

Settgast traveled to the Jenkersons’ home in Osawatomie, Kansas, told them he was repossessing the rock and took it back to California, Valle alleges. Now Settgast has both the rock and the $425,000, according to Valle.

The lawsuit has been assigned to federal court in Oakland and will commence hearings in late June.

Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com.

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩美女视频在线观看 | 久久精品国产亚洲综合色 | 久久国产成人 | 日本苍井一级毛片 | 欧美色欧美色 | 精品国产乱码久久久久久一区二区 | 成人毛片网站 | 亚洲国产日韩欧美高清片a 亚洲国产日韩欧美在线 | 亚洲国产欧美在线人成 | 午夜欧美精品久久久久久久久 | 久久免费大片 | 深夜福利网站在线观看 | 在线亚洲精品国产成人二区 | 日韩日韩日韩手机看片自拍 | 亚洲天堂成人在线观看 | 一级片aaa| 手机国产日韩高清免费看片 | fefe66免费毛片你懂的 | 99视频精品免视3 | 国产亚洲精品午夜高清影院 | 国产精品久久久久久福利漫画 | 国产67194| 亚洲欧美片 | 国产精品免费一区二区三区四区 | 国产精品国产三级国产an | 波多野结衣视频免费在线观看 | 国产伦精品一区二区三区四区 | 最新欧美精品一区二区三区不卡 | 成人在线免费视频播放 | a级国产乱理伦片在线 | 久久精品国内偷自一区 | 日韩美女视频网站 | 亚洲黄色免费网址 | 18在线| 日韩欧美高清在线 | 性色a| 美女在线看永久免费网址 | 国产美女又黄又爽又色视频免费 | 亚洲精品aaa | 精品国产1区 | 久久久久久久国产a∨ |