About 140 exhibits from the military field, such as armors, helmets, medals and decorations, swords, valuable historical documents and photographs, along with other unusual items, will be sold at Artmark’s ‘Military and Antiques’ auction to be held at Athenee Palace Hilton in Bucharest, on April 11, 2012.

The auction’s central piece is a steel French rapier, dating from around 1630 – 1645, which has a starting price of EUR 6,500. Another unique object is a campaign kitchen dating since the First World War, a machinery pulled by horses used to ensure hot food to soldiers, which will be auctioned for a starting price of EUR 7,000 (in picture, below).

Another rare object of the auction will be an ‘Enigma’ machine used by the German army for the encryption of secret messages, during the Second World War. Its starting price is EUR 10,000 (in picture, right).

Other interesting exhibits of the action include a Persian noble which has a starting piece of EUR 3,000, a Spanish crossbow, and a German Sachs motorcycle (in opening picture).

Besides the ‘Military and Antiques’ auction, Artmark has prepared other five auctions on various topics, to be held between April 10 and April 11, namely ’25 Masterpieces from Important Collections’, ‘Sculpture and Garden Furniture Auction’, and ‘Postmodernism & Contemporary Auction’ - scheduled for the first day, and the auction of ‘Art Nouveau, Biedermeier and Romanticism’, and ‘Rare Wines Auction’ - in the second day.

All lots can be seen between April 3 and April 10, 2012, at the Cesianu - Racoviţă Palace in Bucharest.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com