View to a £60k killing as KGB cameras go on sale
RUSSIAN spy cameras used in the Cold War are expected to sell for around £60,000.
The sale includes a Zenit F-21 set up to shoot through a camera case when it is apparently shut.
Other gadgets used by the KGB include cameras in briefcases, jacket buttons, umbrella handles and cigarette cases.
There are also Minoxstyle devices like the one used by James Bond in 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The collection of 200 cameras was amassed over 30 years by a Briton who began Miniature James Bondstyle spy cameras are at auction like this bag camera, right and from the inside, further right. They have all come from behind the Iron Curtain collecting while visiting Russia on business.
Tim Goldsmith at Aston’s Auctioneers in Dudley, near Birmingham, said: “This is probably one of the last opportunities to obtain a real, old style, film spy camera.
“My favourite is one built into a man’s jacket, with the lens hidden behind a button and fired from a trigger in the pocket.
“You would think the last thing to disguise a camera as would be a camera but we even have a unique spy camera hidden in a camera case.
“There is a massive market for Russian spy cameras. They could go for about £60,000.” The auction is on July 12. Umbrellas do more than keep the rain off. This one was used for photos Another of the clever disguises is this secret camera, far right, inside a closed camera case