Robert Haag
The Arizona meteorite hunter and dealer who travelled the world in search of fresh falls from the 1970s onwards.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Meteorite hunter and dealer
Robert Haag of Tucson, Arizona, became one of the best-known meteorite hunters and dealers in the world, sometimes called the Meteorite Man. He began collecting as a young man in the 1970s and turned his interest into a full-time business.
Haag travelled to falls and strewn fields across the world, from Argentina's Campo del Cielo iron field to falls in Africa, Asia and South America, buying meteorites from local finders and searching with metal detectors himself. Many of the specimens now in museum and private collections passed through his hands.
He has also had brushes with the law. In 1990 he tried to acquire El Chaco, a giant Campo del Cielo iron of about 37 tonnes, but he was arrested and the sale was stopped, because the irons are protected in Argentina. El Chaco remains where it was found.
Haag's career illustrates both sides of the meteorite trade. Dealers and hunters recover many meteorites that would otherwise be lost to weathering, and share them widely. But every country has its own laws, and some meteorites belong to the nation, to landowners or to local communities, which buyers and hunters must respect.