An auction due to take place in February 2021 features rare and important relics from the US, Soviet Union and Cuba during the Cold War era, as well as the entire collection from the KGB Espionage Museum.
Julien's Auctions is presenting the auction and over 400 lots will be on offer, including clandestine operative cameras, counter-intelligence detectors, morse code machines, airplane radars, voice recorders and official government documents. Special highlights include a gun designed to look like a tube of lipstick, a secret hotel-room listening "bug" from 1964, and a replica of the deadly syringe umbrella believed to have been used to carry out the assassination of Bulgarian author, Georgie Markov.
The items were procured by historian, collector and museum curator, Julius Urbaitis, who worked as the consultant for the 2019 Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning HBO series, Chernobyl. They include a carved stone sculpture of Vladimir Lenin that stood in the headquarters of the KGB in Kaliningrad, a purse with a hidden camera and shutter apparatus, a machine used by border guards to detect people hiding in vehicles, a German WWII phone tap device, and an original steel door from a former KGB prison hospital.
Numerous relics of the US and Soviet space race will be spotlighted, including the original NASA-designed spacesuit transporter from the Mobile Biological Isolation System, created for David Vetter in 1977. This was the inspiration for the Emmy-nominated film, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, starring John Travolta. Memorabilia enthusiasts may like a space-flown NASA T-shirt and shorts worn by astronaut Donn Eisele on Apollo VII, and a Soviet space program coffee tube signed by Vostok 3 cosmonaut, Andriyan Nikolayev.
Highlights from the Cuban Missile Crisis items include Che Guevara's high school report card, a signed 1958 letter from Fidel Castro discussing plans to infiltrate the capital city of Havana, a presentation sword given to African American military officer, Captain William Roderick Staff, who fought in Cuba, and official Coca-Cola Company business trademark registration documents from 1915 and 1917 in Havana.
"These extraordinary items taken out of the secret archives and vaults from the US, Russia and Cuba will add tremendous value to any collection from world-class museums to any history buff's private trove," says Darren Julien, president/CEO of Julien's Auctions. "From the entire KGB Espionage Museum collection to obscure US and Soviet space race artifacts to never before seen items from Cuba and their Revolution, these stunning objects offer a fascinating look at the geopolitical, economic and cultural upheaval of that time, whose impact resonates more than ever in this election year."
Julien's Auctions is presenting "The Cold War Relics featuring the KGB Espionage Museum Collection" on February 13, 2021 at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills and live online here.
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