New York KGB Museum went under the hammer: Americans spent tens of thousands of dollars on spy gadgets
'15.02.2021'
Lyudmila Balabay
The collection of the KGB Espionage Museum in New York, which closed last year, was sold on February 13 at an auction called "Cold War Relics." They were organized by the auction house Julien's Auctions, writes TASS.
The most expensive lot in this auction was a women's handbag with a built-in hidden camera, which went under the hammer for $ 32 with an estimated cost of $ 2-3.
On the auction house website noted that the collection of the KGB Espionage Museum is the world's first and most extensive auction, which presents the rarest and most important artifacts of the Cold War era from the United States, the Soviet Union and Cuba.
In total, more than 400 lots were presented at the auction, ranging from miniature cameras and sound recording devices disguised as a wide variety of household items, and ending with an original document written by Ernesto Che Guevara, which was sold for $ 16 thousand at an estimated cost of $ 10-15 thousand.
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- Sold for $ 25 Soviet "spy coin" one ruble denomination with secret storage. The specialists expected that the final bet on it would not exceed $ 200-300.
- Encryption machine "Violet", capable of creating 590 quadrillion combinations, went to an unnamed buyer for $ 22 with an estimate of $ 400-18 thousand.
- Miniature camera disguised as a pack of cigarettes John Player Special, sold for $ 19 at an estimated $ 200-600.
Bidding was held in Beverly Hills, California, but bids could be placed online, so buyers from different regions of the United States participated.
The KGB Espionage Museum, which opened in Manhattan in early 2019, ceased to exist in October 2020. The organizer of the museum, Lithuanian Julius Urbaitis, then stated that the leadership had to make “this difficult decision” due to the fact that the museum was closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic and could no longer exist without guests.
