Romania-built plane used by Ceausescu going up for auction

An airplane used for official trips by Romania’s late communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu will be put up for auction on May 27 with a starting price of 25,000 euros ($30,000)

BUCHAREST -- An airplane used for official trips by late Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu will be put up for auction on May 27 with a starting price of 25,000 euros ($30,000), an auction house said Tuesday. The 119-seat Rombac 1-11 was one of nine such passenger jets built in Romania, under a British license, before 1989. It was used by Ceausescu for official trips between 1986 and 1989, the last three years of his decades-long rule. Another presidential Rombac 1-11, used by Ion Iliescu, who assumed power after communism fell in 1989, will go up for auction on the same day with the same starting price. “They’re considered jewels of the Romanian aeronautic industry,” Alina Panico, the public relations manager at the Artmark auction house, told The Associated Press.