Aussie Gold Nugget in Dispute
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The June 2 auction in New York of a 56-pound gold nugget found in Australia is in doubt because it may have been taken out of the country illegally.
The anonymous owner of the nugget had not applied for an export license to send it to New York, where it is scheduled to be auctioned by Sotheby's, said Sue Leech, a spokeswoman for Australia's Communications, Information, Technology and Arts Department.
"This department has never received a request for export license and at the moment we're looking into it," Leech said Thursday. "Without this permit, the nugget would be a prohibited export."
She said Sotheby's had agreed to withdraw the nugget from sale if proper export procedures had not been followed. Anyone wishing to export a gold nugget worth more $158,000 would require an export license, Leech said.
Sotheby's said the planned reserve price for the nugget was between $250,000 and $300,000.
The nugget, named "King of the West," was discovered in a dry stream bed in the goldfields of Western Australia state. The prospector does not want to be identified and will not say where or when he made the discovery, which was unearthed with a metal detector.
The owner has said he hid the nugget under his bed and floorboards for up to three years before trying unsuccessfully to sell it to a Las Vegas casino.
The gold in the nugget is unusually pure and a flake from the find was shown by tests to be 93 percent gold and 7 percent silver.
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