Page 221 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

them, or 19 percent, could not locate all of the borrowed materials.

The report also found that the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston had records of hundreds of samples that no longer exist, and loans to 12
researchers who had died, retired or relocated, sometimes without the office's knowledge and
without returning the samples.
[Source: http://www.space.com/13878-nasa-apollo-moon-rocks-misplaced-lost-report.html]

The monetary value of these losses is significant. NASA has never sold any of their Moon rocks, but
if the price of $5 million dollars for the Honduras Goodwill rocks is considered a fair market price,
then the total value of the rocks NASA has lost track of would amount to hundreds of millions of
dollars. In the year 2000 Russia sold three seed-sized pieces of the Moon they claimed to have
brought back to Earth by a robotic probe launched in 1970. These three tiny pieces of Moon rock
were sold at auction for $442,500. In another article on the Space.com website it is stated “While
the moon rocks recovered by the Apollo astronauts are considered National Treasures and have never
been awarded to individuals, hypothetical appraisals have suggested even a 1-gram sample could be
worth millions.”

NASA’s loans of lunar rocks and soil to researchers and educational presenters may be compared
to the loan of famous paintings between art galleries and museums. The values of the material are
similar. When works of art are loaned, they are carefully inspected, catalogued, insured, and secured
under strict requirements stipulated by the insurers. NASA, on the other hand, has behaved as if they
were simply loaning a bunch of rocks they picked up along the side of the road. This may not be far
from the truth.

A 2009 disclosure from the Dutch Rijksmuseum may explain why the disappearance of these
“national treasures” may not be too concerning to NASA, and may in fact be deemed to be
fortuitous. Following is the account given at the PhysOrg.com website.

Moon Rock Turns Out to be Fake
The Dutch national Rijksmuseum made an embarrassing announcement last week that one of its
most loved possessions, a moon rock, is a fake -- just an old piece of petrified wood that's never been
anywhere near the moon.

The Rijksmuseum is famous for its fine art collections, especially paintings by Rembrandt and other
masters. One of its lesser known objects, the "moon rock," was first unveiled in October 2006 as the
centerpiece of a "Fly me to the moon" exhibition. At that time, the museum said the rock symbolized
the "exploration of the unknown, colonization of far-away places and bringing back of treasures..."
A reading about the "moon rock" was even held on October 7 because it was a full moon!

The rock was given as a private gift to former prime minister Willem Drees Jr in 1969 by the U.S.
ambassador to The Netherlands, J. William Middendorf II, during a visit by the Apollo 11
astronauts, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin, soon after the first moon landing...

When Drees died in 1988, the rock was donated to the Rijksmuseum, where it has remained ever
since. According to a museum spokeswoman, Ms Van Gelder, no one doubted the authenticity of the