Iconic ‘Flag Over Reichstag’ Leica III camera goes under the hammer at Bonhams Leica Centenary Sale in Hong Kong on 30 November. What makes this Leica so special is fact it was used by Yevgeni Khaldei, to take one of the most iconic images of the World War II. Khaldei,who worked as a photo journalist for the official Soviet news agency TASS captured his iconic Raising a Flag Over The Reichstag photograph in 1945. The image became one of the most reproduced images in the world, its significance compared to Joe Rosenthal’s ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’.
Bonham’s head of scientific instruments Jon Baddeley said: ‘It is a great privilege to be selling a camera with such evocative associations.
‘Raising a flag over the Reichstag is a defining image of victory over evil that affected people deeply at the time and has continued to resonate for later generations.’
A Bonham spokesman added: ‘The soldiers in Khaldei’s photograph are not the original men and the image has been altered to add more smoke…’
Now, the Leica III he used to snap the shot is going up on the Bonhams auction block, where expected to fetch £230,000 ($393,000) – £340,000 ($581,000).
