Lenin Going, Going, Gone

Scores of Soviet-related knickknacks have been auctioned off to help raise money for Hungarys recent toxic disaster. The sale, held in what was once a warehouse for Hungarys secret police, garnered a great deal of interest from both the curious and ardent memorabilia hunters.

Many of the items, which included the once ubiquitous busts and paintings of Vladimir Lenin, were gathered by the government under the banner Never Again.

It's an important gesture. Almost every Hungarian family was somehow a victim in the communist period," Gergely Boszormenyi Nagy, an official of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, told The Wall Street Journal . "This is the end of the line. We won't keep this stuff anymore."

In 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell, monuments across Eastern Europe were torn down. However, whilst some significant items ended up in museums, others disappeared into storage. Although some pieces from the sale have been snapped up well-to-do young Hungarians who take an ironic view of communism, serious collectors were also present. The Wende Museum of Culver City, California, which specializes in the visual legacy of the Eastern bloc, was delighted to pick up 25 pieces for its collection.