The James Bond-style Soviet spy cameras disguised as everyday objects for use in the Cold War
A treasure trove of 'extremely discrete' James Bond-style cameras used by Soviet spies against their Cold War rivals is set to fetch thousands of pounds at auction.
The gadgets, which include cameras disguised as folders, briefcases, and more, were built for use by the KGB, the Stasi, and other Eastern Bloc spy agencies.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the murky history of most of the items remains shrouded in mystery.
But a few precious details survive for some.
For example, the Oko II camera – which was made by the Czech company, Meopta – was formerly used in a European embassy
And the device in Lot 435, a brass Stasi camera, seems to have been custom made for a specific individual or mission.
One gadget was actually produced on the near side of the iron curtain – an ingenious wristwatch camera from West German manufacturer Steinheil.
And the Tochka is similar to the Riga Minox camera used by George Lazenby in the Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
A spy camera from West German manufacturer Steinheil disguised as a watch
Michal Kosakowski, head of appraisals at German firm Leitz Photographica Auction, which is handling the sale, described the cameras as 'extremely discrete'.
He said: 'The more advanced designs, such as the Tochka and Oko II, operate almost silently and are very difficult to detect.
'The intended use depends on the specific camera.
'Some, like the briefcase camera or the Tochka, were designed for field operations and could be carried on the body.
'The Tochka, for instance, had multiple concealment options.
'Others, such as the Oko II, which is hidden in a file folder, were intended for stationary use.'
All the cameras are 'quite rare', and some are deceptively simple, Mr Kosakowski said.
'The level of sophistication varies,' he said.
'While simple designs like the pinhole camera in Lot 428 could be operated by virtually anyone, more complex devices required specialised training.
'For example, Lot 435 – a Stasi camera – required a specific setup for document copying, with precise distance, lighting, and exposure time.'
He continued: 'The briefcase camera in Lot 427 consists of a slightly modified Zorki and a fairly crude mechanism.
'In contrast, the Oko II is highly advanced, featuring a top-grade electromechanical shutter and completely silent film transport.
'On the simpler end, some devices like those in Lots 428 and 435 are fully mechanical, yet robust and highly reliable.'
Despite the cameras all going to auction on the same date, they weren't part of the same collection.
Mr Kosakowski said: 'These cameras come from various sources.
'It's actually a coincidence that so many ended up in the same auction – an unusual and fortunate convergence.'
Also up for grabs is the Leica o-Serie No. 112, which is described as 'one of the world's oldest and rarest film cameras', and is set to fetch up to €2m (£1.6m).
Estimates for the miniature and spy cameras vary from €500 (£420) to €10,000 (£8,400).
The cameras will go under the hammer in Wetzlar, Germany, on June 27.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
From a rectal kit to a Berlin Wall-era transmitter: the artefacts of Australia's spy museum which doesn't exist
Every morning Mike Pritchard eats breakfast next to a Stasi surveillance rack. The machine, sitting on a couple of milk crates near his dining room table, is composed of colour-coded buttons, switches and dials. It contains a surveillance receiver, a controller for up to 10 receivers, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and a numbers-station broadcast box. 'The equipment in this rack can be seen in the German film The Lives of Others,' the Sydney man says. 'It's absolutely been used. They used this stuff every day. Remember, this was a police state – they are using this stuff to listen to everybody. This is not a once-a-month thing, it's your day job.' The artefact is not the only piece of espionage history in his home. He has spy cameras once favoured by intelligences services such as the CIA and KGB and a field radio used in the second world war by US women parachuted in behind enemy lines. The really interesting things he keeps off-site in a facility that is packed to the brim – like cipher devices used by the French intelligence services during the Algerian civil war and in Indochina that were once uncrackable; several working enigma machines; a briefcase built to conceal a compact automatic firearm; a bra built to conceal a hidden camera; a rubber stamp from a Berlin Wall checkpoint; and a nameless device built to detect invisible writing. 'The truth is, I think I am a complete nerd,' he says. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Every so often he extracts these items to photograph them for the Australian Spy Museum's social media feed – an institution which doesn't yet exist but which the 59-year-old is working to make real. Currently, Washington DC and Berlin host the biggest public spy museums in the world, with smaller collections on display in Spain, Latvia and Finland; a private collection of mainly KGB equipment in France that occasionally tours; and some good cryptography museums including in Bletchley Park in the UK and in Moscow. No such institution exists in Australia – something Pritchard wants to change. Australia's intelligence agencies maintain their own in-house 'captive' collections, and a spy camera museum exists outside Cairns. Pritchard is thinking bigger. His museum would span the history of espionage from the Renaissance to recent times, with exhibitions organised around the pillars of spy-craft: cryptography, mass surveillance, covert communications, tradecraft equipment and modern threats. Within each one of those, a collection would track the development of events and technologies over time, from old clockwork devices through to the digital age. Pritchard's collection, which started in 2011 and is now 'well north of 1,500 artefacts' is enough to get started, he says. He won't say what it's worth – 'its value is: 'I don't want my wife to see that in print'' – but it includes artefacts from the intelligence services of the UK, US, France, Russia, Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Finland, Peru, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Czech Republic and more, all across different eras. He has also sourced like-models for equipment issued by Australian intelligence services but says agencies such as Asis and Asio have been 'notably scrupulous' at policing their kit and destroying it at end of life. 'We've also never had a big dramatic event like a government collapse or a civil war in our contemporary history that would have allowed some of this stuff to get out,' he says. James Bond may have glamorised espionage, but Pritchard says the franchise is a fantasy that is a 'powerful marketing vehicle for watches and cars', a world away from the reality – which can be less glamorous. Within his collection is a rectal conceal kit, a capsule about the size of a thumb, that contains diamond wire that could be used to cut metal as part of an escape. Another example is a Tochka – a spy camera about the size of a finger – built to be hidden behind a necktie. The Romanian man who sold it to him, he says, was among those who raided the Securitate building, headquarters of a brutal secret police, at the fall of the regime. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion His favourite artefacts, however, demonstrate an extraordinary blend of prowess and deviousness – like a device used by the Stasi to speak to its operatives across the Berlin Wall using infrared. Unless you were standing inside the beam of light, there was no way to know a conversation was being had – and no way to eavesdrop. 'I can hold in the palm of my hand this tiny object, and it's built with this craftsmanship, this jeweller-like precision that goes into this tiny camera,' Pritchard says. 'And to think about the effort and the work that went into it is extraordinary. And it has its own life as just this beautiful little example of precision engineering, which is then overlaid with its story, its place in history, of these monumental changes in our world.' Any future spy museum, Pritchard says, could also serve as something of a Trojan horse to educate people about modern threats – such as climate change. Among his most prized items are rare, first-edition books and publications charting the development of the theory behind the greenhouse effect. The materials begin with Joseph Fourier, who in 1827 first used the term 'greenhouse effect', and Eunice Foote, who in 1856 performed experiments that demonstrated the greenhouse effect. There are also artefacts once belonging to Guy Callendar, who confirmed the Earth's temperature was rising in 1938, and Roger Revelle, who warned of 'radical climate changes' way back in 1958. 'It's about rebuilding that story on a timeline that ordinary people can walk into and can see, and then go, 'Oh my God, this is what we knew at this point. This is what we knew at this time.'' Governments and intelligence agencies tend to have a particular view about how the past gets told, so Pritchard's preference is a privately owned open museum in Sydney, with its vibrant tourism market. Think of it as 'educational espionage', he says. 'A museum where the Get Smart gadgets are on the surface and everyone goes, 'Wow, a telephone hiding in a shoe!' but then, as they walk through the galleries, they learn about cryptography, or they learn about the security aspects of climate change and they go, 'OK, I never really thought about that before.' 'It's learning by stealth.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: Mystery donor who paid £1,300 fine that freed lead Madelaine McCann suspect is a former police officer investigating him - as she blames 'misunderstanding'
The mystery donor who paid the £1,300 court fine that paved the way for the lead suspect in the Madeleine McCann 's case to walk free has been identified as a former police officer. The woman, who has not been named, claims to have been wipe-tapping the jail cell of paedophile Christian Brueckner, The Sun reported. He is the main suspect in the unsolved disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. The 48-year-old is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of an American woman, then 72, in the same Algarve resort where Maddie went missing. The woman who paid the fine is said to be a former member of the BKA, the German equivalent of the FBI. She told German newspaper Der Spiegel that she was the person responsible for settling Brueckner's oustanding balance - but claims it was based on a 'misunderstanding'. Until now the convicted rapist was only able to pay off £210 of the amount owed, meaning he was set to remain in jail until January 2026. However thanks to the former office's intervention Brueckner is now set to be released on September 17. The former police officer's actions appear to undermine her former employer, with German police still seeking to find forensic evidence to charge Christian Brueckner with Maddy's disappearance. The woman, who claims to work in 'Operative Technology Audio', says that she was previously reponsible for bugging the paedophile's jail cell. However, she reportedly thought that the outstanding fine was only due to Brueckner insulting a police officer - a charge she said 'wasn't justified'. She claims that by the time she learnt that the financial penalties related to a number of more serious infringemnts, including bodily harm, it was too late. The woman told Der Spiegel that the payment was a 'misunderstanding' and that she had attempted to reverse the payment, but to no avail. The reasons for paying the fine appear bizarre, but the former officer alleges that she has 'never had any personal contact with Christian B'. The German newspaper was, however, able to confirm that she had transferred the total sum - £1,300 - into an account belonging to the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office. The payment covered outstanding fines on Brueckner's record, including a 2016 charge for drunkenness in traffic and forgery of documents and another from 2017 for assault. Brueckner, who has been under investigation by German police in connection with Madeleine's disappearance since 2020, has vehemently denied the allegations. Last October, he was also cleared of a series of unrelated sex attacks that took place in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017. Brueckner's lawyer Philipp Marquort previously told MailOnline that he believed the sexual offender 'will leave Germany' when released, but that he would likely remain in jail until early 2026. He added: 'I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet about the searches and I am not going to comment on what has been happening in Portugal. 'What I will say is that I don't think he will be coming out in September as he doesn't have any money to pay the fines because it went on his legal fees, so I can't see him leaving prison until early next year. 'He will probably see the news on the TV in his cell and he will talk about it when he calls me next time but I still do think when he is freed he will leave Germany.' News of his the alleged anonymous donor comes just weeks after two buried guns were discovered during an intensive three-day search operation near Brueckner's former ramshackle cottage home close to where Madeleine vanished. Earlier this month, German authorities launched fresh searches through Atalaia - a stretch of scrubland littered with rubbish and graffiti-covered buildings linked by a network of dusty tracks known in Portuguese as the Fisherman's Trail. Connecting Praia da Luz with the nearby town of Lagos, the track is a popular hiking route for tourists, but for four days last week it was cordoned off for members of the BKA - Germany 's equivalent of the FBI - to conduct searches. The search marked the first in Portugal for more than two years, following a near-week-long operation involving Portugese, German and police officers at a remote dam a 40-minute drive from Praia da Luz. Brueckner has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance in a series of letters but has refused to engage with police or provide them with an alibi. He has also admitted to being close to the villa where Madeleine was sleeping on the night of her disapperance.
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Mystery female donor who paid £1,300 fine to free Madeleine McCann suspect Brueckner is former COP who investigated him
THE woman who has paid for the prime Madeleine McCann suspect's early release has been revealed as a cop who had been investigating the paedophile. The mystery donor settled a £1,300 outstanding court fine which means Christian Brueckner, 48, will walk free in less than three months, on September 17. 6 6 Reports have now identified her as a former officer with the German FBI - known as the BKA - who claims to have been involved in wire-tapping his jail cell. She confirmed to respected Hamburg-based publication Der Spiegel she paid the funds directly to the justice system - allowing the fiend out early. Convicted rapist Brueckner had only been able to pay off £210 of the total fine and faced being kept behind bars until January. That scenario would have granted cops four precious extra months to hunt down forensic evidence and finally charge him over Maddie's disappearance. As it is, the ex-cop's intervention undermined the same force she previously worked for - all as they tirelessly dug for new clues in Portugal two weeks ago. The woman - who has not been publicly named - claims she worked in the field of 'Operative Technology Audio'. She says she was involved in bugging Brueckner's prison cell - allegations that emerged in court last year as the disturbed German was cleared of fresh rape charges. The female fine-payer did confirm: 'I never had personal contact with Christian B.' And when confronted over the fine payment, the woman bizarrely told Spiegel it has been a 'misunderstanding' and she had tried in vain to reverse the payment. She reportedly believed the fine was due to Brueckner insulting a police officer, something she said "wasn't justified". When she learned that the penalties were actually to do with a number of infractions, including bodily harm, 'it was already too late,' she said. Spiegel reports it has been able to verify she transferred £1,300 to an account of the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office at the Comdirect bank. It cleared a 2016 Helmstedt District Court fine for drunkenness in traffic and forgery of documents and a 2017 Braunschweig court levy for assault. Brueckner will now walk free when his sentence for raping an American woman, 72, in Praia da Luz, in 2005, ends. He has been named publicly as the prime suspect over the May 3, 2007 disappearance of Maddie, of Rothley, Leics., since 2020 but has never been charged. He has used letters to deny the claims but has refused to answer police questions or provide an alibi. His phone was in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished and made a 30-minute call from the area. 6 6 His Jaguar was re-registered into a name the day after the disappearance. A Sun investigation this year revealed bombshell new evidence - including Brueckner's obsession with snatching and abusing small, young, blonde girls. We also placed him at key police locations of interest, including a lake where cops dug for evidence, And we showed evidence he was at the scene of an al-but-confession when he allegedly said Maddie 'did not scream,' in 2008. Our probe - aired on Channel 4 - revealed the existence of a hard-drive and laptop containing crucial picture evidence on the case. Police maintain they have physical evidence Maddie is dead - but no forensic links. German police have recently stressed the value UK authorities could provide by getting involved in the case again before Brueckner's release. He has refused to rule out leaving Germany and insisted he will go to ground on his release. If he travelled to a non-extradition country all hopes for McCann justice could disappear with him. Timeline of Maddie's disappearance May 3, 2007 Madeleine McCann disappears from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, sparking a massive police search and becoming one of the most famous missing persons cases in history. January 15, 2016 Neighbour reports a possible 'grave' at Brueckner's abandoned factory in East Germany. Cops find disturbing images on USB sticks and launch a full-scale search. February 16, 2016 Christian Brueckner is convicted for abusing a girl of five in a park after images found on his laptop. He was sentenced to 15-months behind bars but was already on the run by then. May 3, 2017 Around this time, Helge B calls an information hotline after watching a ten-year anniversary special on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He reports an alleged confession by Christian Brueckner. September 27, 2018 On-the-run Christian Brueckner is arrested over outstanding drugs claims in Italy. He is extradited to Germany the following year. December 16, 2019 Christian Brueckner was convicted, in Germany, for the 2005 rape of an American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, after his DNA was matched to a hair found on her bed. He was sentenced to seven years behind bars. June 4, 2020 German prosecutors reveal to the world they have a suspect in custody under investigation for the abduction of Madeleine McCann. For the first time they claim Madeleine is dead. German media later name him as Christian B (Christian Brueckner). June 23, 2023 In his first interview, witness Helge B alleges to German newspaper Bild that Christian Brueckner all-but-confessed the Madeleine abduction to him, by allegedly saying 'she didn't scream' as they talked about the case, at a music festival, in Spain. February 16, 2024 Brueckner goes on trial accused of none-McCann allegations of rape and sex assault, in Braunschweig, Germany. Prosecutors hope for a conviction to keep him behind bars permanently and lead to McCann charges. October 8, 2024 Brueckner was acquitted of all claims. Prosecutors launch an appeal, however. Decision pending. September 17, 2025 Date on which Christian Brueckner will be released from custody without action being taken. Prosecutors require an arrest warrant for a retrial over claims from last year - or over the McCann case. June 1, 2025 Police order a renewed search for clues in Praia Da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal. It lasts for just three days. 6 6
