The meteorite belongs to the finders, not the landowner. The Supreme Court in Sweden took care of the cosmos

The meteorite, which fell under Stockholm in 2020, belongs to the finders, not to the land owner – the Swedish Supreme Court decided on Tuesday. The precedent sentence is finally ended by a loud dispute between three men.

The highest court instance in Sweden ruled that the meteorite was by definition a movable property, not part of the property on which it fell, which would then give the ownership of the owner of the plot.

In December 2020. Two geologists, Anders Zetterqvist and Andreas Forsberg, found in the forest near the city of Enkoeping, about 80 km west of Stockholm, weighing 14 kg meteorite, which fell there a month earlier. Men located this place thanks to amateur films and photos from people who noticed a mysterious object in the sky. After the media sounded information about the find, the land owner of the land, aristocrat Johan Benzelstiern von Engestroem, demanded. When geologists refused, the man through his company brought a case to the court to grant him the right to a meteorite.

In December 2022, the District Court in Uppsala decided that the right to the rock was entitled to the finders. The owner of the land appealed against the judgment, and the Court of Appeal in March 2024 decided that he was the owner of a meteorite. The judge then treated the cosmic rock like a regular stone that is part of the plot.

The Supreme Court pointed out that in Sweden there is no legislation regarding meteorites or their finders, which is why the case required a decision based on the provisions regarding what the components of the property he fell on.

The meteorite was transferred to the deposit to the Natural History Museum in Stockholm.

From Stockholm Daniel Zyśk (PAP)

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