Cold War-era spy gear to be auctioned off

James Bond reigned at the movie box office. “I Spy,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Get Smart” were top-rated TV show. “Secret Agent Man” topped the pop charts. Boris Spassky stared at Bobby Fischer across the chess board.

Pop culture of the 1950s and 1960s was steeped in trench-coats, tiny cameras and Cold War espionage. But it wasn’t mere fiction.

As the United States and Russia maintained a frigid relationship framed by the specter of nuclear war, agents around the globe plotted to snag intelligence from the two superpowers.

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Many tools of Cold War espionage may seem quaint in the era of cell phones, high-tech hacking and the battle to keep encrypted information safe. But tiny cameras and desk-top decoding machines were among the surveillance weapons of the day.

A collection of such gadgetry will be sold off Saturday as Julian’s Auctions of Beverly Hills stages a Cold War relics auction. The pieces became available after the pandemic soured the dream of a spy-tech museum in Manhattan.

Included will be wee-sized spy cameras, tucked into in everything from packs of cigarettes to rings, from neckties to purses.

Also for sale: A bust of Lenin, prison doors, communication gear, shoes with hidden compartments, a Che Guevara journal and even a cyanide-packed “suicide tooth” (for when a spy couldn’t elude capture).

Collector Julius Urbaitis, 57, of Lithuania, starting collecting as a kid. His items are in featured in books and documentaries — and he has plenty more housed at a museum, The Atomic Bunker, in Lithuania.

Auctioneers expect “The Cold War Relics Auction Featuring the KGB Museum Collection” to fetch between a $500,000 to $750,000.

The most valuable individual piece was thought to be a Soviet KGB Fialka cipher code machine, used to code and decode secret messages, valued at $8,000-$12,000.

Bidders can also pursue spy cameras in cigarette packs, however, valued as low as $600.

Source: Orange County Register