Questions raised over garden's 'meteorite'

By Dong Hui | June 13, 2009, Saturday |

Print Edition

The Shanghai Botanical Garden has started an investigation into what has been described as a prehistoric meteorite yesterday in response to questions over its authenticity.

The garden will try to trace a businessman surnamed Yin, who donated the stone in 1997, said the garden's Li Xuemei. If it can't, the garden will seek expert appraisal, which was never carried out.

"We were busy organizing an Asia-Pacific bonsai and stone exhibition at that time," Li said. "Yin contacted us a week before the exhibition, expressing his will to donate the stone and asking us to display it as an exhibit."

Yin, who was living in Xuzhou City in neighboring Jiangsu Province, told the garden he transported the stone from northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where a batch of meteorites were believed to have struck.

The garden said they trusted Yin as he was a renowned stone collector at the time.

The stone didn't arouse much attention at the exhibition, Li said, and the garden kept the stone in its northeast corner as "the stone goes well with its green surroundings."

But Yang Songnian, a former deputy director of Shanghai Natural History Museum, said an appraisal was needed before display.

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Questions raised over garden's 'meteorite'

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