Sample Bag From Apollo 11 Mistakenly Sold After Previous Criminal Case

The sample bag used by the Apollo 11 astronauts to collect the first lunar soil samples has become the focus of a legal dispute.

The white bag with lunar dust embedded in its fabric was mistakenly sold by the government in 2015 as part of a criminal case against the former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. Max Ary was convicted in 2005 of stealing and selling museum artifacts, according to Fox News. The bag was one of hundreds of items that had been missing, some on loan from NASA. It was found in Ary's garage while authorities were executing a search warrant in 2003.

The bag was sold at auction to Nancy Carlson of Inverness, IL for $995. She sent it to NASA's Johnson Space Center for authentication, and now the U.S. Attorney's Office has asked a federal judge to rescind the sale on the grounds that NASA was not properly notified of its forfeiture due to misidentification of the artifact.

The government says the bag is "a rare artifact, if not a national treasure."

Federal prosecutors say that NASA should keep the item, the sale should be rescinded, and Carlson's money refunded.

Ary had founded the Cosmosphere, and was its president and CEO from 1976 to 2002. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and served about 70 percent of his time. He was also ordered to pay $132,274 in restitution. The bag was one of the items auctioned in an effort to satisfy the fine.

Ary still maintains he is innocent of the charges, and the museum artifacts accidentally got mixed in with his personal collection which he sold privately from his home.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.justice.gov/usao-dc