Russia says 2.8-tonne piece of Aletai meteorite found disguised as garden ornament smuggled into UK

Moscow — Russian investigators prevented a giant meteorite fragment from being smuggled into Britain disguised as a garden ornament, the Federal Customs Service reported Thursday.

The huge specimen weighing about 2.8 tonnes is believed to come from the Aletai meteorite, one of the largest known iron meteorites on Earth, he said.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation.

“The strategically important cargo was discovered during checks of a sea container in the port of St. Petersburg,” the customs service said in a statement.

“When attempting to export it, it was declared a garden sculpture. But a detailed inspection revealed that the origin and value of the shipment differed from the declared information,” he added.

The video showed customs officials opening a box to find the rock, its surface gray and rough.

The fragment could be worth approximately 323 million rubles ($4.2 million), according to the statement.

The statement did not say who attempted to import the fragment, only that it was destined for the United Kingdom.

Scientists have raised ethical concerns about the sale of meteorites, which are often coveted for research purposes and contain important clues about the composition of the early solar system.

The Aletai meteorite was discovered in western China in 1898 and is believed to be at least 4.5 billion years old. It’s unclear when the meteorite hit the Earth’s surface, but such landings occur from time to time.

The Aletai meteorite is similar in age to one Athat went through the roof of a house in the US state of Georgia last year. Dozens of witnesses saw it as a fireball burning in the sky in broad daylight.