Bag of moon dust that NASA lost could fetch $5.7 million at auction

Neil Armstrong's iconic photograph of Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission which saw the first crew to land on the moon.

A Chicago woman stands to make a US$4 million ($5.7m) dollar profit on an item she picked up for the humble price of US$995 ($1,400).

The product in question is a bag containing traces of moon dust, left after Neil Armstrong used it to store lunar rocks collected from the moon after the Apollo 11 landing.

Nancy Lee Carlson came into possession of the bag after purchasing at an auction to make restitution in a case involving Max Ary- a former director of a Kansas space museum.

Ary had his house raided by the FBI in 2003 and was imprisoned for two years for stealing artefacts and then selling them in space auctions.

And when his possessions were seized for auction, Ms Carlson snatched up the item that was described as "one flown zippered lunar sample return bag with lunar dust ('Lunar Bag'), 11.5 inches; tear at centre. Flown Mission Unknown", reports Fox News.

From here, things got even more convoluted.

When Ms Carlson sent the item to NASA in the hope of obtaining further information about the history of her purchase.

The part number printed inside of the bag correlated to the "Contingency Lunar Sample Return Decontamination Bag" listed in the Apollo 11 Stowage list and the dust was confirmed to be from the moon.

Realising the object was in fact something NASA wasn't aware it had lost, the space agency refused to return the object to Ms Carlson and asked the court to rescind the auction because it believed it was the dust's rightful owner.

In June last year, Ms Carlson launched legal action against NASA for wrongful seizure of property in U.S. District Court in Chicago, with support from former special agent at NASA's Office of the Inspector General Joseph Gutheinz.

"It's an incredible piece of history, and losing it was a colossal mistake for NASA," he told the Wall Street Journal.

"The government sold off a national treasure and then got seller's remorse ... but Nancy Lee bought it fair and square."

In December, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled in favour of Ms Carlson and ordered NASA to return the dust.

"Ms. Carlson's standing as a bona fide purchaser gives her priority over NASA's asserted claim to the property," he ruled.

Sotheby's Cassandra Hatton - a representative from the premium auction-house listing the item - said she expects a lot of interest in the item, which is tipped to sell for US$4m.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," she told Chicago Tribune.

"[It might be] the only privately held object of its kind in the world."

Ms Carlson said she plans to donate some of the proceeds to charity.