While lunar soil brought back by the first unmanned robotic probe to touch down on the Moon’s surface failed to find a buyer at Leski’s December 11 Melbourne auction, memorabilia from pioneer aviation flights resulted in a great deal of spirited bidding.
The tiny sample of soil from the Russian Luna 16 September 1970 expedition (lot 261) carried a starting price of $400,000, so it was always going to be big ask to find a sufficiently wealthy interested buyer – while...