Sotheby's auction: Mars rock fetches $5.3M, young dinosaur skeleton sells for over $30M
New York: Sotheby’s auction this week featured two incredible relics, one from the vast reaches of space and the other from the distant past of Earth, that captivated bidders and set new records.
A Martian meteorite, NWA 16788, weighing 54 pounds and ejected from Mars by an ancient asteroid impact, sold for an astounding $5.3 million. It was reportedly discovered in Niger’s Sahara Desert in 2023 by a meteorite hunter, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a huge asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles to Earth.
The bidding for this rare piece of Mars was fierce, with a 15-minute back-and-forth between online and phone bidders before it was secured by an anonymous buyer.
However, the real drama unfolded over a juvenile ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton, one of just four known specimens of the species and the only known young specimen. Initially valued at $4-6 million, the bidding for this dinosaur skeleton took off dramatically. The bids surged in rapid succession, with offers increasing by $500,000 and later by $1 million each time, reflecting the skeleton's rarity and significance.
After a heated back-and-forth, the bidding ended at $26 million, but the final sale price, including fees, reached a jaw-dropping $30.5 million, setting a new record for the sale of a dinosaur skeleton. Parts of the skeleton were reportedly found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
