Volkswacht Bodensee - Dog kennel hit by meteorite sells at auction

But the offer of the third-largest piece of Mars on Earth failed to make an impact at the auction house's annual sale of unusual meteorites.

The buyer paid $21,420 for the three-by-1.5 inch (eight-by-four centimeter) carbonaceous chondrite stone that landed in the garden of dog Roky's owner's home in Aguas Zarcas in April 2019.

The wood and tin doghouse itself, complete with a seven-inch hole marking where the meteorite punctured the roof, sold separately for $44,100, Christie's said.

That was much less than the pre-sale estimate of between $200,000 and $300,000.

A bidder paid $189,000 for a chunk of lunar rock that was discovered in Morocco in 2007, below pre-sale estimates of up to $300,000.

Another slice of the Moon -- found in the Sahara desert in Mauritania -- fetched $69,300 during the two-week online sale that ended Wednesday.

It was a disappointing auction for Mars, though. The 20-pound (9.1 kg) Martian rock had been priced at between $500,000 and $800,000 but failed to find a buyer.

F.Müller--BTB