Italian Auction - 'Brezhnev'

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

I've seen this thread just now, excuse me if I didn't pay attention to it first.

I understand the concern anybody should have and the technical approach a serious collector needs to have when discussing a piece for sale, in order to ascertain its originality.

I've written the catalogue of this sale and what I can say is that the Spada Collection was put together from the mid '80s until the early days of the fall of the Warsaw Pact. Ambassador Dr. Spada had contacts at the highest level and he still is one of the greatest collectors of Orders & Decorations (the "treasures" of his collection of ancient European orders shall be on exhibit at the National Museum of the Legion of Honour in Paris, France, from November 19th on, under the Patronage of the French President).

As stated in the description (excuse me, I've missed to translate it into English!), the uniforms come from the military wardrobe of L.I. Brezhnev, former Secretary General of the CPSU and, most probably, after their exterior look, they've never been worn. I think that when he was in power, Mr. Brezhnev had a huge wardrobe.

Of course, the HSU stars are copies from the late '80s, put to complete the uniform, but the ribbons were together with the uniforms. The god bullion embroideries are of the finest quality, not seen on uniforms of later production.

Anyways, I understand that such pieces could rise "to be or not to be" questions.

In my opinion, and talking as a collector now, one of the best uniforms offered for sale in this auction is that of the Pilot Cosmonaut, General V.A. Shatalov, left from him as a present, with his grey greatcoat, at the end of his official visit to Italy in 1990. General Shatalov kept for himself the honour medal of "Pilot Cosmonaut of the USSR" and the two HSU stars, giving himself the two wearing copies.

If there would be any question or request of further detail and information, I'll be glad to be at disposal.

Best wishes,

Enzo Calabresi
(Orders & Decorations; Militaria Dept.)

[DougD]

Hello Enzo,

Thank you for adding to this thread. The collection is an amazing one, but I still feel there are major issues with the "Brezhnev" uniforms.

First, not in any way to doubt the owner, but unless he bought them from Brezhnev himself, its kind of difficult to accept any statements of his as evidence. We are left with no real trail of ownership, and thus have to look at the physical aspects of the uniform.

First, the HSU wearing copies are not in dispute; no one is claiming they should be real. However, Brezhnev seems to always have worn his on a bar of 3 or 4, not individual. On could say he took them off the uniform for another uniform (but why? as the leader you would think he would have a limitless supply of 4 star bars) an then they were replaced with singles. Tough to accept, but possible.

Second are the ribbon bars. They simply do not match what we have seen Brezhnev wearing in actual photos. I have yet to see / hear a likely resolution to do this. This is a major issue; showing an actual photo of Brezhnev in uniform with such a ribbon make up would be a great step forward; the photos that have been shown seem to point to the ribbons not matching.

As to the quality of the Marshals uniform, I am unaware of quality differences that would have been apparent between a uniform made in 1982 and 1988...so I am not sure how the collector could distinguish...if i am missing some obvious differences, please let me know. Again, no one is claiming the uniforms are fake, but rather possibly un-issued, with Brezhnev-like ribbon bars being added.

Each person must decide how comfortable they are with any uniform. I do not think I would be comfortable with these without some resolution of these issues. However, others might be and that is why collecting (and collections) vary.

DougD