Anthony Bourdain’s Meteorite Chef Knife Sells for $231,250

I remember hearing the sad news in June of 2018 that Anthony Bourdain, famous chef, book author, TV personality and overall down-to-earth super cool dude, had taken his own life. Crystal (my wife) and I happened to be in Colmar, France where he died shortly after the announcement as we were attending the Ensisheim MeteoriteWork in progress. A solid natural object reaching a planet’s surface from interplanetary space. Solid portion of a meteoroid that survives its fall to Earth, or some other body. Meteorites are classified as stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites. These groups are further divided according to their mineralogy and show and though we did not visit the site, we did feel a sense of loss at the passing of one of the few real people in reality TV. Like many fans, we really enjoyed watching Anthony’s adventures on TV and I remembered watching in fascination the show (see below) where certified blade-master, Bob Kramer, made Tony’s now famous meteorite chef knife. So, when I saw a press release in early October 2019 that this specific knife would go up for auction, I was really excited. iGavel Auctions had predicted it would sell for anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000, and I figured I had a chance. Once bidding opened, the price quickly rose to around $22,000, and my dreams fell equally fast. The bids stayed at that level for most of October, The bidding got stuck at around $22K and I guessed it might go up as high as $30,000.

Out of the more than 200 listings in the auction, Bourdain’s chef knife netted the highest bid of $185,000. After adding in the 25% buyer’s premium of $46,250, the total price came to a whopping $231,250!