Editing Lunokhod 2 (section)

== Present ownership ==
Ownership of ''Lunokhod 2'' and the ''Luna 21'' lander was sold by the [[Lavochkin]] Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a [[Sotheby's]] auction in New York.<ref name=garriott/><ref>Kluger, Jeffrey (April 1994) [http://discovermagazine.com/1994/apr/thebloconthebloc363 The Bloc on the Block]. Discover magazine</ref> (The catalog<ref>Sotheby's Catalogue – ''Russian Space History'', Addendum, Lot 68A, December 11, 1993</ref> incorrectly lists lot 68A as ''Luna 17''/''Lunokhod 1'').

The buyer was computer game entrepreneur and space tourist [[Richard Garriott]] (son of the astronaut [[Owen K. Garriott]]), who stated in a 2001 interview with ''[[Computer Games Magazine]]'''s Cindy Yans that:

:I purchased Lunakod 21 {{sic}} from the Russians. I am now the world's only private owner of an object on a foreign celestial body. Though there are international treaties that say, no government shall lay claim to geography off planet earth, I am not a government. Summarily, I claim the moon in the name of [[Lord British]]!<ref>Garriott, Richard (April 13, 2001) [http://demiurg.net/games/lb/ Lord British, we hardly knew ye]. demiurg.net</ref>

Garriott later confirmed that he is the owner of ''Lunokhod 2''.<ref name=garriott>{{cite news |title= After 17 Years, a Glimpse of a Lunar Purchase |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/space/31moon.html?ref=science |quote=Richard A. Garriott has finally seen the item he bought 17 years ago for $68,500. |work=[[New York Times]] |date=March 20, 2010 |access-date=April 1, 2010 | first=Kenneth | last=Chang}}</ref><ref>[http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-100207a.html The Astronaut's Son's Secret Sputnik]. CollectSPACE. October 2007</ref><ref>[http://radio.seti.org/past-shows.php Are We Alone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219053216/http://radio.seti.org/past-shows.php |date=December 19, 2008 }}. (podcast interview with SETI Institute Director Seth Shostak) December 10, 2007</ref>