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Exceedingly rare ‘Gold Chain of Office for the Members of the International Olympic Committee’ issued for the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics, worn by the members of the IOC during the Games. The chain is gilt cast bronze, approximately 80 cm long, designed by Walter E. Lemcke based on ancient Greek vases and coins. It features six medallions along the chain—depicting a javelin thrower, two wrestlers, a torch runner, a youth with jumping weights, a weapon runner, and a discus thrower—with colorful enameled Olympic rings at the bottom; engraved on the reverse of the rings is, “Skulp. W. E. Lemcke.” Suspended from the rings is a larger medallion of the head of Zeus, 53 mm x 65 mm, engraved on the reverse, “XI. Olympiade Berlin 1936.” The Olympic rings exhibit a few bends and some loss of the enamel.
These chains were originally created by the 1936 Berlin Organizing Committee for members of the IOC to wear during the 1936 Berlin Games, and they were intended to be worn at each Olympiad thereafter. This is the only time such a special and exclusive award was created for the IOC. Of course, the 1940 Games were canceled due to World War II, and the chains were never worn again. It is believed that there were 60 of these produced, but far fewer are known to exist today. They were supposed to be returned to the IOC and stored in a bank vault in Berlin, but some IOC members kept them. Following World War II, only nine of the chains were said to have been recovered from the Berlin vault, and a comprehensive 2012 article, ‘An endless Olympic Chain’ by Karl Lennartz, enumerated only six known chains today. Exquisitely crafted and rarely seen in even the most complete Olympic collections, this is a remarkable piece of history.
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