LOS ANGELES, CA.- Julien’s Auctions held its headline-making The Cold War Relics Auction Featuring the KGB Espionage Museum Collection, the world’s first and most comprehensive auction event offering nearly 500 of the rarest and most important artifacts from the U.S, Soviet Union and Cuba during the Cold War era ever to be assembled and offered at auction, live in Beverly Hills and online at juliensauctions.com.

At the centerpiece of this historic event was the sale of the entire collection from the KGB Espionage Museum in New York City featuring artifacts such as clandestine operative cameras, counter-intelligence detectors, morse code machines, airplane radars, voice recorders and official government documents. The collection was procured by world-renowned historian, collector and museum curator, Julius Urbaitis, who worked as the consultant for the 2019 Emmy and Golden Globe award winning HBO series, Chernobyl.

The top selling item was a Soviet KGB spy purse used by female operatives with a concealed FED model camera known as "The Fly" (due to its insect emblem on the side of the purse), which sold for $32,000 nearly thirteen times its original estimate of $2,500. Another highlight was the sale of a Soviet spy coin with a hidden compartment which sold for an astonishing $25,600, one hundred twenty-eight times its original estimate of $200 and as well as a rare Soviet version of the Enigma code cipher machine known as the Fialka which sold for $22,400.

Other highlights from the KGB Espionage Museum collection included (with their winning bids): a reproduction of the deadly syringe umbrella believed to have been used to carry out the assassination of Bulgarian author Georgie Markov which sold for $19,200, nine times its original estimate of $2,000; a Soviet KGB spy bag containing a hidden "Zaryad" camera ($19,200); a Soviet KGB spy “listening” ashtray with a concealed microphone "bug" inside that sold for $12,800, sixteen times its original estimate of $800; a wooden reproduction carved American Great Seal plaque with a hidden microphone listening bug which was gifted to the American ambassador to Russia in 1945 by the Soviet Boy Scouts which sold for $19,200, six times its original estimate of $3,000; a Russian FSB spy pack of Marlboro brand cigarettes containing a hidden digital camera which sold for $11,520, fourteen times its original estimate of $800; a Soviet KGB miniature camera spy ring ($15,625); a Soviet KGB spy camera disguised to look like a pack of JPS (John Player Special) cigarettes which sold for $19,200, thirty-two times its original estimates of $600; a Soviet KGB spy cigarette case with a hidden "Tochka" camera which sold for $15,625, nearly sixteen times its original estimate of $1,000; a Soviet KGB spy cosmetic kit containing a hidden "Kiev-30" camera which sold for $22,400, thirty-seven times its original estimate of $600; a Russian FSB spy umbrella containing a hidden digital video camera, with the lens operating through a small hole on the handle ($19,200); a Soviet KGB spy "Yacht-1M" miniature reel-to-reel tape recorder, with numerous accessories housed in a briefcase ($11,520) and more.

Other highlights included: an original 1960 journal believed to be hand-written by Che Guevara ($16,000); a first edition of Che Guevara’s highly influential book La Guerra de Geurrillas [Guerrilla Warfare] (1961) bearing an official receipt stamp to the front endpaper from Che Guevara as Minister of Industries, signed “Che” and stamp dated November 13, 1961 ($16,000); a color photograph of NASA astronaut Gene Cernan standing on the surface of the Moon next to the American flag during the Apollo 17 mission ($10,000) and a television camera lens assembly of the type used by NASA on the lunar rover (LRV) during the later Apollo moon landing missions ($10,000).