Whatever happened to sudek13 and his massive collection? - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

Richard T. Eger · #1 7th May 2011, 18:46

Dear All,

I was scouting around some old PM's and noticed some pertaining to sudek13. As I recall, at one time, he was opening up his collection to others, but then that idea seemed to have been rather short-lived, somewhat akin to the attempt by Keele to make their aerial photos available on-line.

So, out of curiosity, I was wondering what had become of his collection.

Regards,
Richard

Rasmussen · #2 7th May 2011, 23:16

IIRC it is now the "Archive of Modern Conflicts".

Regards
Rasmussen

Richard T. Eger · #3 9th May 2011, 02:18

I Googled "Archive of Modern Conflicts", but, from what is described, I don't think that it is connected with sudek13. With all the fuss about this guy a few years back and his amassing a huge collection of Luftwaffe photos by outbidding everyone else on eBay, I am quite surprised that no one else has jumped in with an update on whatever happened to him and the collection. Come on guys, someone here knows.

Okay, I tried directly Googling both the supposed archive with sudek13, but the references were no newer than 2008. Again, it looks like this thing has gone into hiding.

Regards,
Richard

VtwinVince · #4 9th May 2011, 02:44

Richard, this guy has been active only the other day on ebay. He purchased a couple of rare Wehrmacht photos, of course for astronomical amounts of money.

Richard T. Eger · #5 9th May 2011, 05:08

eBay doesn't list winners anymore, as far as I know. How do you know it was him?

Regards,
Richard

Rasmussen · #6 9th May 2011, 07:30

I'd believe sudek13 wasn't an guy, but an "organisation" with base in Canada. I itself sold two pictures to "sudek13" and I had to do with two different persons, a man and a woman, living in different towns (IIRC).

Best regards
Rasmussen

Peter Kassak · #7 9th May 2011, 07:39

Hi guys.

It has been discussed in here and on other forums as well.
Sudek 13 was really not a person, it was an organization of various bidders, that collected photos from eBay for some unknown private collection. Private menas not public that time, but it was assumed it was some museum, or archive or so.
Archive of Modern Conflicts IS name for PART (at least) of that collection. I have seen photo with this credit published but previously bidded on eBay. If the googl search does not give any hints ot Archive of Modern Conflicts, it means it is not opened fully for public. BUt as it appeared in publications, some publishers may have access to it.
I also would like to make connection regarding very few shots, but was not lucky yet...

Khorat · #8 9th May 2011, 15:41

hm just know one which had access to this collection and ya its not opend for public, b´cause there is no catalogisation yet. Maybe sometime in the future.

khorat

Richard T. Eger · #9 9th May 2011, 17:34

I'm not quite buying the story that sudek13 was not a single individual. Whoever it is/was seems to have access to unlimited funds, which is generally not the case with aviation history authors who shouldn't give up their day jobs to feed their families. Yes, sudek13 did obtain the cooperation of a number of researchers that formed an inner circle. And, perhaps, one or more of these has acted to communicate for him. But, I don't think that this all started out as a cabal. It needed one rather rich person to spearhead it in the first place.

Regardless, there was a promise at one time to share the collection with the aviation history community. But, since then, nothing. That's why I wrote my inquiry in the first place.

Regards,
Richard

CJE · #10 9th May 2011, 19:52

He is (was?) a Canadian millionaire who set up a team to work on his behalf on eBay with the ultimate goal to open up his archives to anyone.
They bought a hell of a lot of photographs when money was easy.
Since 2009 and the recession, things have gone from bad to worse.
The team was disbanded and the collection held up waiting for better days.