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A Signed Photograph of the Potsdam Conference Table, 17 July to 2 August 1945 28 x 22 in (71 x 56 cm) 1 image 1
A Signed Photograph of the Potsdam Conference Table, 17 July to 2 August 1945 28 x 22 in (71 x 56 cm) 1 image 2
Lot 168

A Signed Photograph of the Potsdam Conference Table, 17 July to 2 August 1945
28 x 22 in (71 x 56 cm) 1

29 April 2015, 10:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$6,000 inc. premium

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A Signed Photograph of the Potsdam Conference Table, 17 July to 2 August 1945

A color photograph of the Potsdam signatories at the table, titled "Potsdam Conference Table, July-1945", signed by "Winston S. Churchill," "Harry S. Truman," William Leahy," Joseph E. Davies" and "Charles P. Bohlen", and with calligraphic notes identifying various attendees including Churchill, Molotov, Vyshinsky, Attlee, Stalin, "Interpreter," "Interpreter Pavlov," Leahy, Eden, Secretary Byrnes, "President Truman," Davies, Cadogan and "Interpreter Bohlen."
Provenance: Joseph E Davies, signatory and special Advisor to President Truman.

The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, in Potsdam, occupied Germany. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and later, Clement Attlee and President Harry S. Truman respectively. The gathering was called to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on 8 May, as well as what form the post-war order would take, peace treaty issues, and how to counter the effects of the war. In addition, the conference signed the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July, outlining an ultimatum and terms of surrender for Japan. Truman notably made mention of a "powerful new weapon" to Stalin during the conference, although there was no explicit talk of the atomic bomb. This was ultimately a pointless gesture: Soviet spies had already long infiltrated the US atomic project at Los Alamos and would contribute to the Soviet's development of their own atomic weapons in 1949. An historic and highly important photograph.
28 x 22 in (71 x 56 cm) (1)

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