With an auction estimate of up to $300,000 on a kennel for a single dog, but who would spend that much on a knackered old one with a gaping hole in its roof?
Turns out nobody would. A doghouse that was struck by a meteorite fragment in April 2019 - complete with a hole in the roof - is among the items that sold last week during an online Christie's auction of rare meteorites, reports CNN.
The doghouse, the former home of a German Shepherd named Roky, was projected to be the second most valuable item in the annual sale, titled Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites. It had a high estimate of $300,000, but it did not meet expectations, selling for just $44,000. But that's got to still make it the world's most over-priced kennel, considering the condition it's in.
The meteorite itself was not included in the lot, but it was part of the auction, selling for around a third of its high estimate at $21,000.
Why is the doghouse, which is made of pressed wood with a very rusty tin roof, more valuable than the meteorite itself?
"Objects hit by meteorites are extraordinarily rare (as an event it is astronomically unlikely). We are aware of only a handful of these objects in private hands," explained James Hyslop, head of the science and natural history department at Christie's.