Dmitry Vrubel

The present lot present depicts the famous 1979 kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker—at the time the respective leaders of the USSR and the GDR (East Germany). Honecker ruled East Germany from 1971 to 1989, during which time he oversaw a totalitarian regime, stifled political dissent, and reportedly ordered soldiers guarding the Berlin Wall to shoot those East Germans who tried to escape to the West. Ironically, this image of Honecker kissing Brezhnev was painted on a stretch of the Berlin Wall called the East Side Gallery. It became known worldwide, circulated in millions of copies on T-shirts, posters, and souvenirs.