American Treasure turns out to be worthless – after 40 years
The small moonstone in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has always been cherished as proof of the very special relationship between the United States and the Netherlands. The museum even insured the treasure to an amount of $70,000. Now, exactly 40 years after American ambassador J. William Middendorf officially handed it over to prime minister Willem Drees, new research by geologists in Amsterdam proves it is just a piece of petrified wood. Worth no more than $70.
Drees kept the stone as a personal gift until his death in 1988. Afterwards, his son decided that more people should be able to see it and gave it to the Rijksmuseum. What remains uncertain is whether Middendorf – or the Apollo 11 crew that accompanied him – already knew that the stone was a phoney.
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