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KGB Spy Equipment From NYC Museum Collection Sold Out at California Auction

© AFP 2023 / TIMOTHY A. CLARYA sample of some of the items on display at The KGB Spy Museum in New York on January 25, 2019. - The exhibit presents a never-before-seen collection of items covering the activities of KGB agents and revealing the methods that underlay many of history's top secret espionage operations. The vast exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to some 3,500 original period objects, which Lithuanian historian and designer of the museum Julius Urbaitis, 55, claims to have gathered after 30 years of research "around the world."
A sample of some of the items on display at The KGB Spy Museum in New York on January 25, 2019. - The exhibit presents a never-before-seen collection of items covering the activities of KGB agents and revealing the methods that underlay many of history's top secret espionage operations. The vast exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to some 3,500 original period objects, which Lithuanian historian and designer of the museum Julius Urbaitis, 55, claims to have gathered after 30 years of research around the world. - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.02.2021
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Hundreds of items from the now-dissolved New York KGB Espionage Museum sold out at an auction on Saturday among a rare collection of Cold War relics from the United States, the Soviet Union and Cuba, Californian-based Julien's Auctions said.

The most expensive lot was a Soviet female purse with a metal accessory on its front shaped like a fly with a miniature camera hidden in it. The estimated price was $2,000-$3,000, but the purse ended up selling for $32,000 pursuant to 14 bids.

The second-most expensive lot was a Soviet coin with a hidden compartment, which was sold for $25,600 instead of the estimated $200-$300, followed by a Soviet make-up kit with a hidden camera, which was sold for $22,400 instead of $600-$800.

© AFP 2023 / TIMOTHY A. CLARYA sample of some of the items on display at The KGB Spy Museum in New York on January 25, 2019. - The exhibit presents a never-before-seen collection of items covering the activities of KGB agents and revealing the methods that underlay many of history's top secret espionage operations. The vast exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to some 3,500 original period objects, which Lithuanian historian and designer of the museum Julius Urbaitis, 55, claims to have gathered after 30 years of research "around the world."
KGB Spy Equipment From NYC Museum Collection Sold Out at California Auction - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.02.2021
A sample of some of the items on display at The KGB Spy Museum in New York on January 25, 2019. - The exhibit presents a never-before-seen collection of items covering the activities of KGB agents and revealing the methods that underlay many of history's top secret espionage operations. The vast exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to some 3,500 original period objects, which Lithuanian historian and designer of the museum Julius Urbaitis, 55, claims to have gathered after 30 years of research "around the world."

Soviet KGB equipment items took all nine top lines on the list, while number 10 was a 1960 journal believed to be hand-written by Cuba's Che Guevara, which was sold for $16,000 instead of the estimated $10,000-$15,000.

The entire collection included over 400 lots featuring hidden cameras, counter-intelligence detectors, machines for ciphering and deciphering, morse code machines, airplane radars, voice recorders and official government documents.

The KGB Espionage Museum of New York opened in early 2019, but closed down last March because of the pandemic.

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