The personal collection of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to step on the moon, will be sold at auctions.
Armstrong Family Collection
Neil Armstrong died in Ohio in 2012 at the age of 82 and his family has turned to Heritage Auction of Dallas to sell items from the astronaut's estate.
Dubbed the Armstrong Family Collection, the collection contains more than 2,000 items and will be under the hammer in a series of three auctions. The first one will be held in November, and the two others will be held in May and November 2019.
Items to be auctioned include artifacts and keepsakes that range from the cap that Armstrong wore as a Boy Scout to materials from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the world's first powered airplane that the astronaut brought with him to the moon in July 1969.
The collection also includes other items that Armstrong took to the moon such as a flag of the United States, a United Nations flag, various states flags, as well as Robbins Medallions and a rare gold medallion.
"There will be flown items, autographed items and items of historical significance," Armstrong's son Mark described the items in the collection. "There will be items that make you think, items that make you laugh and items that make you scratch your head."
Valuable Items
Items brought from the moon especially those used by Neil Armstrong proved to be valuable and sought after.
A moon dust bag that Armstrong used to collect samples during the Apollo 11 mission sold for $1.8 million in 2017. The canvas pouch was subjected to a legal battle because it had been mistakenly sold by the U.S government at an auction. In 2015, a judge ruled that collector Nancy Carlson is the legal owner of an Apollo 11 moon rock bag. The bag eventually fetched 1,821 times the original $995 price that Carlson paid for.
Another item with links to the Apollo 11 mission and Armstrong is also currently the subject of a lawsuit.
Laura Murray Cicco, from Tennessee, filed a lawsuit against NASA to keep a vial of moon dust, which she claims, was a gift from Armstrong. The U.S space agency did not attempt to acquire the moon dust vial but Cicco preemptively filed the lawsuit since NASA's position is that all materials from the moon are owned by the United States.
The federal lawsuit has sought to establish ownership of the item under the Declaratory Judgment Act of the United States Code.
