EJ’s Auction & Appraisal in Glendale has been selected to auction the historic “Boot of Cortez” gold nugget.
The auction is set for 1 p.m. Friday, June 12, online and live at EJ’s Auction & Appraisal in Glendale for qualified bidders. Bidders can register at bootofcortez.com through June 9; they will be vetted. The opening bid is $1 million; the reserve is undisclosed.
The “Boot of Cortez” is classified as the largest surviving natural gold nugget found in the Western Hemisphere. EJ’s Auction & Appraisal arranged for the specimen to be independently weighed and analyzed in April using modern calibrated equipment.
“We’re definitely proud that we were selected to do it,” said Erik Hoyer, CEO and owner of EJ’s Auction & Appraisal. “This will be the first time that we’ve been entrusted with something like this. So, it definitely means a lot. It’s nice to know that all the hard work and the effort that we put into representing our consigners is paying off. We go that extra mile to provide the service to do everything we can in the best interest of our consigner.”
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The current measurement was confirmed using a third-party scale certified by the State of Arizona. The specimen also has undergone third-party X-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing, verifying the material to be approximately 98% gold.
Some of the features include:
- A gold nugget in the shape of a conquistador’s boot
- 383.10 troy ounces, or 26.2 pounds (11.9 kilograms)
- 10.75 inches (27.3 cm) in height and 7.25 inches (18.4 cm) in width
- 98% pure gold
- Pristine condition, maintained its original form
A prospector discovered “The Boot of Cortez” using a metal detector from Radio Shack while searching for gold in 1989 near Caborca, Mexico, about 70 miles south of the Arizona border and about 60 miles east of the Sea of Cortez in the Mexican state of Sonora.
The “Boot of Cortez” quickly became one of the most celebrated mineral finds of the modern era. It has been exhibited at leading institutions and events, including the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In January 2008, the piece achieved over $1.3 million at auction, which was four times the gold spot value at that time. It has remained in a distinguished private collection for nearly two decades.
Hoyer said the “Boot of Cortez” has not changed ownership since the buyer purchased it at auction in January 2008.
“We were fortunate enough to be selected by the estate to represent this piece,” Hoyer said. “It is the largest surviving gold nugget ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere with a metal detector. It has a long, storied history. It’s just a fantastic, fantastic piece. We couldn’t be more excited to have this event.”
EJ’s will host a special viewing of the “Boot of Cortez” at its Glendale auction house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 20. For security reasons, the auction house will allow a limited number of people into the gallery per hour. The 30,000-square-foot EJ’s Auction & Appraisal is located at 5880 W. Bell Road, on the northeast corner of Bell Road and 59th Avenue.
“It’s almost like coming home,” Hoyer said. “It was in another location for almost two decades. Maybe it will be closer to the actual location where it was founded. You just never know It’s returning to the Sonoran Desert after leaving Sonoran Desert years ago.”
EJ’s Auction & Appraisal was founded in 2013, when Hoyer was an on-site auctioneer, traveling to homes to businesses to sell assets at auctions. He became so busy that the family opened an auction house. Now the company has 26 employees.
Hoyer is proud that his family’s business — one of the largest estate auction companies in Arizona — was chosen.
“It’s extremely rare for a company, such as ourselves, to be selected to represent a piece of this magnitude,” he said. “There are some very, very large auction companies throughout the world that would love to represent this piece.”
Hoyer likens his job to a treasure hunt, as he never knows what’s going into come through the door.
“We see a lot of different stuff,” Hoyer said. “Some things that you would never think would hold a lot of value winds up to be something that is extremely desirable and very collectible.”
For details, visit bootofcortez.com, email concierge@ejsauction.com or call 623-878-2003. To view EJ’s weekly online auctions, visit ejsauction.com.
