The Netherlands lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of Moon specimens brought back with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 Moon missions and given to the people of the Netherlands by President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts.
Description
Apollo 11
Apollo 17
History According to Moon rock researcher Robert Pearlman, both the Netherlands Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar sample displays are in the National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine in Leiden, Netherlands.
The Rijksmuseum of the Netherlands said in 1992 that it received a so called "moon rock" from the estate of Netherlands Prime Minister Willem Drees. As it turned out, the prime minister had misidentified and marked the object as a moon rock after he received it from the then US ambassador William Middendorf, who had gotten it from the U.S. State Department. The museum put the object on display and identified it as a moon rock after verifying its authenticity first via a phone call with NASA. When it was subsequently examined years later it was found to be just a piece of petrified wood. It's important to note that NASA, the US space agency, never claimed to have given Drees a moon rock, was not the source of the petrified wood piece, never had it in their possession nor gave it to the prime minister.
See also List of Apollo lunar sample displays Stolen and missing Moon rocks
References
Further reading
External links
Partial list of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 sample locations, NASA Johnson Space Center