Space report’s origin a mystery

MOSCOW – The mission report by Yuri Gagarin, sold at Christie's auction house for $171,000, appears to have been stolen from a Russian government organization, but details of the document's provenance remain a mystery, the head of Russia's main archive service said yesterday.

The printed and signed report was bought Wednesday by an unidentified American telephone bidder during a sale of space memorabilia at the auction house.

The document includes Gagarin's description of his 108-minute voyage on April 12, 1961 – the first manned orbit of Earth.

Shortly after Gagarin's flight, several copies of the report appear to have been made to be sent to the Soviet government's space agencies, but other details remain hazy, said the head of the Russian Federal Archive Service, Vladimir Kozlov.

Before the auction, experts from the federal archive service investigated the origins of the document, but to little avail, Kozlov said.

"A lot of time has passed, and many of the people involved are no longer alive," he said in a telephone interview. "We tried to determine from where (the report) came, but as yet we don't know."

He suggested that the report had been stolen, because according to Russian law such documents must be held in state archives.

"This is not Gagarin's personal notebook," Kozlov said. "It's an official document, which had been sent to some top state institution."

Gagarin's widow, Valentina, disputed the document's authenticity, saying only three copies had been printed, and all were in state archives, the Interfax news agency reported. She added that other copies may have been made illegally, and it was one of those that was auctioned.

But Christie's insists the document is genuine.

"We are confident about the provenance of this piece," said Benedetta Roux, assistant vice president and public relations manager for Christie's. "It is signed by him. Two carbon copies of this typescript – also signed by him – have been sold in the past.