Soviet spy gadgets from the cold war era including items like cyanide-filled fake teeth, cigarette packs concealing cameras, etc. will go up for auction at Beverly Hills this week.
“The people that actually created these things were the pioneers of miniaturization,” Kody Frederick, director of gallery operations said.
“Everybody now carries a camera, everybody now has a microphone, but many of the auction’s spy gadgets hail from an era when cell phones were ‘as big as six bricks,” he added.
Items ranging from miniature cameras fitted inside handbags, belt buckles, signet rings, ties, bird boxes, and shoe brushes, which were used by secret agents will be put up for auction.
“People are looking to get their hands on really unique, different pieces from a time when digital didn’t exist and analog was the way of life,” Frederick said.
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After the fall of the Soviet Union, many items were discarded in Eastern Europe, which were eventually brought to New York’s KGB museum. However, the museum opened in January 2019 and had to be closed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the items up for auction this week is a fake tooth containing deadly cyanide, which is expected to be sold at a price of $1,200.
“The tooth was designed to shatter when bitten a certain way so that captured agents could end their own lives when necessary to avoid torture or the release of compromising information,” the auction catalog reads.
The auction will also include a replica of the ‘Bulgarian umbrella’, which was used in 1978 in London to poison Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident. The umbrella is estimated to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000.
However, some items including a lipstick tube and a pen designed to fire bullets have been withdrawn from the auction due to California’s gun laws.