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Putin’s purported pen sells for pretty penny, says newspaper

The name of the buyer, who participated in the auction via telephone, was not made public

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. A black pen decorated with a silver double-headed eagle and Swarovski crystals has been sold at the Drouot auction in Paris for €63,000, Le Parisien daily wrote on Thursday, claiming that the pen had previously belonged to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the newspaper, the item’s price was initially estimated at €50,000 to €80,000. The name of the buyer, who participated in the auction via telephone, was not made public. "This item is not an object of art," the auction house experts said. "However, its uniqueness stems from the current political situation," they added.

Read also

St. Petersburg buyer scoops up Yeltsin’s limousine for over $330,000

A number of media outlets said earlier that a Mercedes-Benz S-Class in Pullman had been put up for sale on the auto.ru website for 8.5 mln rubles ($139,700). Its seller - an individual - claimed in an ad placed on March 6 that the vehicle had been part of the Russian Federal Protective Service’s car park used by President Vladimir Putin. However, a private collector later acquired the car.

The Federal Protective Service told TASS that the car in question indeed used to be the FSO’s property but Putin never rode in it. Similarly, an automobile industry expert interviewed by TASS said that the vehicle on sale had a body 50 cm longer than usual and looked different from vehicles that usually carry the Russian leader.

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