Pol Pot's 1973 stretch Mercedes on eBay
Imagine the conversations and activities that took place inside Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's limousine.
Mr. Pot killed about two million Cambodians (a quarter of the country's population) in the 1970s in order to live the high life. But you don't need to kill anyone to own this piece of history. You just have to be the high bidder on eBay.
For Sale - one classic 1973 Mercedes Benz Stretch Limousine (short-wheel base stretch) - previously used by one infamous owner - Pol Pot who led the Khmer Rouge during its genocidal regime in Cambodia from 1975 - 1979.LinkCurrently on display at the famous French colonial renakse hotel (Monireth Boulevard) - opposite the Kings' Royal Palace. The car was discovered by a previous editor of the Phnom Penh Post being used to transport water melon's to the Central Market (Psar Thmei). The current owner purchased the car in 2001 and has painstakingly restored it to its current glory.
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i dunno.. kinda like the idea of it being a watermelon cart better.
if you like crazily historic cars like this (that yes, you can buy), you should stop by the parking garage at the Imperial Palace next tme you're in vegas. they have 2 floors FULL of amazing old cars (like the steampunk? check out the dusembergs (spelling?) from the 20's-30's.) when i was there they had imelda marcos' bulletproof brown mercedes sedan (the glamorous life, anyone?) and nikita krushchev's car (a lada or a volga...i forget) as well.
What type of person would want such a thing? What's next? Lampshades fashioned by the notorious Ed Gein? Am I the only person who sees something wrong with all of this? The idea that someone is trying to make money from somethng so closely linked to genocide can't be right.
If there were any justice in this world, it would be up to those who survived Pot's violent insantity to decide what should be done with the car.
I'm guessing that would probably want it dumped in to the ocean or incinerated or something like that.
Sexyrobot: Cool tip. The cars are for sale? Oh, and it's spelled Duesenberg.
Pyros: A car, made by Mercedes Benz, that gained notoriety due to who rode in it for a while, is a far cry from a lampshade made from a human being's skin. I hope you can see that's an overblown comparison. Oh, and Godwin.
yeah...they bill it as a museum (i forget if u have to pay to get in...its free for hotel guests tho, i'm pretty sure), but everything's for sale and nothing's cheap...especially those sweet sweet doozies.
;)
The comparison to Gein's crafts project is not as extreme as you indicate. Who knows how many people may have been killed or may have been ordered killed in that Limo. How, in this respect, would it be any different than an oven at Auschwitz? Would it not be morally repugnant to put up such an oven on the eBay chopping block???
I'm sure there would be a bit of a furor (no pun intended). But why the oven and not the car? To fetishize psychopathy and genocide is to encourage it in some small way. It also happens to be extremely disrespectful to the victims and those who may have survived them.
Things have value for a reason. By allowing an object's value to be more because it was associated with a murderous despot, we form an inappropriate mental posture toward the murderous act itself (if you happen to believe murdering people is wrong). If there is anything which is more execrable or smacks of poorer taste, I don't know about it.
There are, of course, many people who suffer from some form of psychopathy even if most of them never get to rule an entire country or get to kill millions of people. Whenever something like Pol Pot's limo is sold in a public way many of them relaibly turn up.
"The current owner purchased the car in 2001 and has painstakingly restored it to its current glory."
Oh, the humanity...
The killer question however remains: What now will Kambodia use to transport those water melons?
Look, I know this stuff generates hits, and I know that I am just feeding into this by responding, but seriously? I have my own horrid fascination with all things bright and shiny that correlate to the darker side of human nature, but I really wish that we would not generate traffic for things like this... I know it doesn't change anything, but at least I wouldn't feel like I had done my own little part to increase their profile. This sale is another example of the trivialization of horrendous pain and suffering, and while I recognize their right to do it, I certainly don't endorse it. I think I'm going to go off and be sick now.
Yes, but does it have the 6.9V8?
i'm with you pyros, and sorry if i seemed gleeful before (i was thinking more about the cool early 20th cent cars i guess) but that car of mrs marcos was a powerful thing. i stood there thinking of her, and all the shoes, and all the suffering she must have ridden blithely past in that car, and i was struck by the awesome history of the thing. these things belong in a museum (as auschwitz and its infamous ovens now are)(boy, it really IS godwin week here on the boingboing comments!), to destroy them is to deny these dark chapters of human history ever happened, and as we all know, those of us who forget our history are doomed to repeat it.
that being said, there is a definite discontinuty between the curated artifacts of our past sitting on the shelves of museums for all to learn from, and their previous owners and all who suffered for their creation. it's this discontinuity, the ebay sales of nazi parephenalia, the back-alley purchases of mummies from grave robbers, etc, that's the really distasteful part. but, the original seller of this car? probably his driver. those grave robbers? locals, trying to make a living any way they can. it's the middlemen and private collectors (though the best of THEM usually end up donating said artifacts...another way the museums end up with them) that are the gross ones here.
sigh. is there anything BUT grey areas in this world?
The Godwin's law thing is pretty funny. Mae culpa, mae culpa, mae maxima culpa! Since it wasn't intentially invoked, I do not intend to stand in contravention of this natural law and shall therefore have nothing further to say on the matter after this reply.
Sexy Robot, you make a good point about Pot the despot and his ilk. Of course deciding how to dispose of the disject membra from such a regime would pose difficult moral problems.
Some of the ways to do it surely are more offensive than others. Putting them on eBay and to go the highest bidder might be one of the more offensive ways, I suppose.
Though I thought your argument about putting the stuff in a museum to bear silent witness through the ages was compelling for a moment, after thinkng about it further, I became unsure. I've never seen the ovens personally yet I remain convinced of the attrocity and I don't think my outrage could exceed its current bounds.
Is it conceivable that one might be convinced only after seeing the oven first hand? This is difficult to contenance (for me anyway). Anyone inclined to such a level of unwarranted skepticism would probably have a strong motive for denial and upon seeing the oven would merely say that it could have come from anywhere, or that it was itself more evidence of some elaborate plot meant to deceive, etc. Am I a fool for taking it on faith that Rome may once have burned?
The sad truth is that humans, for some reason are deeply fascinated by the act of their own immolation when it comes at the hands of other humans. It's by far the most common plot element of all movies, books, TV shows, and probably museums too. Death permeates all.
Though I rightly deserve to be pilloried for my silly moralizing, I ackwoledge that I really don't have the answer. When a Pot or Bush comes to power and leaves human wreckage in their wake too great to calculate, I suppose deciding what to do with the fucking limo after they leave or die or whatever is the least of our worries.
Still, I, like many, I'm sure, lie awake many nights tormented by the deeds of such men. For me there is nothing blasé about ANYTHING associated with them.
Spell Checked Version of Last Post:
The Godwin's law thing is pretty funny. Mae culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! Since it wasn't intestinally invoked, I do not intend to stand in contravention of this natural law and shall therefore have nothing further to say on the matter after this reply.
Sexy Robot, you make a good point about Pot the despot and his ilk. Of course deciding how to dispose of the disject membra from such a regime would pose difficult moral problems.
Some of the ways to do it surely are more offensive than others. Putting them on eBay and to go the highest bidder might be one of the more offensive ways, I suppose.
Though I thought your argument about putting the stuff in a museum to bear silent witness through the ages was compelling for a moment, after thinking about it further, I became unsure. I've never seen the ovens personally yet I remain convinced of the atrocity and I don't think my outrage could exceed its current bounds.
Is it conceivable that one might be convinced only after seeing the oven first hand? This is difficult to countenance (for me anyway). Anyone inclined to such a level of unwarranted skepticism would probably have a strong motive for denial and upon seeing the oven would merely say that it could have come from anywhere, or that it was itself more evidence of some elaborate plot meant to deceive, etc. Am I a fool for taking it on faith that Rome may once have burned?
The sad truth is that humans, for some reason are deeply fascinated by the act of their own immolation when it comes at the hands of other humans. It's by far the most common plot element of all movies, books, TV shows, and probably museums too. Death permeates all.
Though I rightly deserve to be pilloried for my silly moralizing, I acknowledge that I really don't have the answer. When a Pot or Bush comes to power and leaves human wreckage in their wake too great to calculate, I suppose deciding what to do with the fucking limo after they leave or die or whatever is the least of our worries.
Still, I, like many, I'm sure, lie awake many nights tormented by the deeds of such men. For me there is nothing blasé about ANYTHING associated with them.
I wonder if you can rent this on your Holiday in Cambodia.