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Nicolae Ceausescu gifts go under the hammer in Romania
A bronze yak from Mao Zedong and silver dove from the Shah of Iran are among late Romanian dictator’s gifts to be auctioned offAn African leopardskin and a silver dove – a novel offering from the former Shah of Iran – are just two examples of gifts received by Nicolae Ceausescu that will be auctioned off on what would have been the late Romanian leader’s 94th birthday. The auction on Thursday, is billed as “The Golden Age”, a reference to the final years of Ceausescu’s rule when Communist party officials painted a rosy picture of life in Romania while ordinary people struggled with food shortages, power outages and the dreaded Securitate secret police kept tabs on the population of 23 million with an army of 760,000 informers.