RI man plays role in Dutch 'moon rock' mystery
12:08 PM Thu, Aug 27, 2009 | Permalink
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In this photo released by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon, and a note from the then-U.S. ambassador is seen.
LITTLE COMPTON, R.I. -- Some petrifying news has arrived from the Netherlands. It seems that a moon rock supposedly brought back by Apollo astronauts and presented to a retired Dutch prime minister 40 years ago is actually a hunk of petrified wood, according to the Associated Press. The news agency said the rock had been a prized possession of the Dutch national museum, the Rijksmuseum, which acquired it after Willem Drees, the former prime minister, died in 1988. The AP reported that Drees got it as a private gift on Oct. 9, 1969 from J. William Middendorf, then U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and now a resident of Little Compton. Middendorf said on Thursday that he doesn't recall presenting the rock to Drees, but does recall when the Apollo 11 astronauts visited the Netherlands as part of their "Giant Leap" goodwill tour that followed their moon landing on July 20, 1969. "It has been 40 years," Middendorf said, "so I can't remember the details." The former ambassador said the rock must have come either from the State Department or directly from the astronauts. "If it came from the astronauts I would have thought it would be perfectly OK," he added. Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, said the museum will keep it anyway as a curiosity. The U.S. Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter. The museum had vetted the moon rock with a phone call to NASA, Van Gelder said. ''Apparently no one thought to doubt it, since it came from the prime minister's collection,'' Van Gelder said. The rock is not usually on display; the museum is primarily known for its paintings and other works of fine art by masters such as Rembrandt. A jagged fist-size stone with reddish tints, it was mounted and placed above a plaque that said, ''With the compliments of the Ambassador of the United States of America ... to commemorate the visit to The Netherlands of the Apollo-11 astronauts.'' The plaque does not specify that the rock came from the moon's surface It was given at the opening of an exhibition on space exploration. It was on show in 2006 and a space expert informed the museum it was unlikely NASA would have given away any moon rocks three months after Apollo returned to Earth. ''It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone,'' Geologist Frank Beunk concluded in an article published by the museum. He said the rock, which the museum at one point insured for more than half a million dollars, was worth no more than euro50 ($70). Van Gelder said one important unanswered question is why Drees was given the stone. He was 83 years old in 1969 and had been out of office for 11 years. On the other hand, he was the country's elder statesman, the prime minister who helped the Netherlands rebuild after World War II. Middendorf was treasurer of the Republic National Committee from 1965 until 1969, when President Richard Nixon dispatched him to the Netherlands. 
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It's pretty obvious it's not a moon rock upon first inspection. I wonder what took them so long?
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What a hoax!
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