Stalin’s death mask sold for 3,600 pounds
January 25th, 2012 - 1:51 am ICT by IANSLondon, Jan 25 (IANS) A death mask of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was sold Tuesday to an unnamed bidder for 3,600 pounds (over $5,600) at an auction held in Britain’s Shropshire county, the BBC reported.
The mask’s rare cast was taken in bronze from the original plaster death mask by an art dealer during 1990 while visiting Moscow.
Stalin remained the Soviet Union’s head from May 6, 1941 to March 5, 1953.
Richard Westwood-Brookes, from Church Stretton-based auction house Mullock’s, said: “There are, we believe, only two of these in the West.”
The lot included casts of Stalin’s right hand and his withered left hand. In his official portraits, the Soviet dictator always hid this physical deformity, said Westwood-Brookes.
“The casts that we have here show that his hand was a little withered thing, so you are seeing Stalin as he really was,” he said.
The guide price for the death mask of Stalin, who died in 1953, had been between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds.
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