Estate of CIA power couple auctioned in Rehoboth

Stuart Kingston Gallery President Mauria Stein said she was lucky to hear from Margaret Colvin. “She called me to sell all these exciting, historical items from her aunt’s estate,” Stein said.

The estate, which was auctioned Feb. 9, included English furniture, Persian illuminated manuscripts from the 1400s, Oriental art and artifacts, gold and platinum jewelry, and 19th century Russian silver.

Colvin’s aunt, Katharine Hart, died in August 2018. Katharine’s husband, John Hart, died in 2002. The Harts worked together for decades in high-level positions at the CIA, from its inception through the Cold War.

Stein determined one piece, a crystal and silver bowl engraved in Russian, “Peter From Martha 1909” was Fabergé, and a 19th century Russian silver and crystal ewer was formerly owned by the Russian Imperial family.

The Russian silver belonged to John’s father, Charles Hart, Colvin said. Charles was a journalist and diplomat who served as minister to Albania and Persia in the late 1920s to early 1930s.

Colvin said Charles purchased many sterling silver items from Russians who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution. She said when he moved from Albania to Persia, thieves stole all the silver from his caravan except the three items in the auction and a few Fabergé pieces kept by his heirs.

Colvin said Katherine worked for the CIA for 34 years, collecting intelligence about the Soviet Union. After she retired, she served as a consultant on many books and movies about the CIA, including “The Good Shepherd.”

“A secretary for Bobby DeNiro, who was directing the movie, called her to set up a meeting,” Colvin said. “She had no idea who he was.”

Colvin said politics, not pop culture, dominated conversations in the Hart household. She said many attendees at her aunt’s funeral commented on Katherine’s role in breaking the glass ceiling at the CIA.

“They told me she had two rules,” Colvin said. “Women had to wear dresses, until the 1970s, when they could wear pants suits. And everyone must answer the phone within two rings.”