Fake moon rock?

Apparently a dutch museum has a moon rock that was given to them by a former prime minister who claimed to have been given it by NASA in 1969. Recently it's been determined that what was claimed to be a moon rock was actually a piece of petrified wood.

If you search for it there are plenty of articles from well respected sources about this, here's one from the BBC:

http://ift.tt/2qhZW0e

I first heard this listening to Joe Rogan's podcast where he does his "I don't believe that the moon landings were fake, but this is weird" thing. When I heard it I also thought it was surprising but there are obviously plenty of ways that an object can be mistakenly labeled or stolen or in some other way chain of custody can be broken, and as such wasn't too troubled by it.

I was talking to a friend of mine who also likes to listen to JRE and he brought up this "fake moon rock" business again at which point I just explained what I thought were very plausible scenarios in which a moon rock could be misplaced, but having discussed it I thought it worth while to actually look into it.

What I found interesting is that:

Quote:

The "rock" had originally been been vetted through a phone call to Nasa, she added.

Another article goes into a little more detail:

http://ift.tt/2qhPA04

Quote:

The museum had vetted the moon rock with a phone call to NASA, Van Gelder said. She said the space agency told the museum then that it was possible the Netherlands had received a rock: NASA gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries in the early 1970s, but those were from later missions.

This suggests that NASA didn't even have an actual record of giving him this rock, so all we're going on is the word of the former Dutch Prime Minister that he was given a moon rock by NASA. Perhaps he misremembered or maybe he just made up? I don't know.

The rock was also in this guy's personal collection from 1969 to 1988, during which time if it was genuine there is plenty of chance for something to happen to it. Maybe someone stole the rock and replaced it with the one that ended up in the museum.

That second article also makes an interesting point:

Quote:

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.

Apparently this was before it was determined to be a fake.

So how do you think it happened that this rock was thought to be a moon rock? Was an actual moon rock given to the prime minister and then misplaced? Was he not given a rock by NASA at all, or at least not one purporting to be a moon rock? Was he given a rock that NASA claimed was a moon rock but was actually just a piece of petrified wood?

I'm thinking it's mostly likely that he wasn't given the rock at all as there doesn't seem to be any actual record of this happening except for the former prime minister saying that it did and the fact that it's odd that he would be given a moon rock so soon after Apollo 11.

On the other hand even if he was I wouldn't find the other explanation, that it was lost somewhere between 1969 and 1988, to be particularly surprising.

Thoughts?

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2poG7Hq