Moon rock
An investigation showed that United States Ambassador J. William Middendorf II had presented Drees with the "Moon rock" on October 9, 1969. The Apollo 11 astronauts were visiting the Netherlands at that time on a goodwill tour. Drees' grandson speculates that his grandfather, who was nearly deaf, and blind at the time, formed the mistaken impression that the "Moon rock" he received was from the Apollo 11 mission. When Drees' "Moon rock" was received by the Rijksmuseum in 1992, the museum phoned NASA to verify its provenance and was told over the phone, without seeing the piece, that it was "possible" it was a Moon rock. "USA Today" says the discovery of a bogus "Moon rock" at the Rijksmuseum should serve as a wake-up call for all the countries of the world and all the states of the United States that received the Apollo 11 and 17 lunar plaque displays from the Nixon administration to locate the displays and fully secure them.