Insurance agent sets up a gallery of Bond memorabilia

KANGAR: For the past 40 years, an insurance agent here, has been spending thousands of ringgit on James Bond memorabilia.

Mushtari Mohamad, 49, said his interest in James Bond movies, which had among others portrayed the late Sean Connery and Daniel Craig to identify the fictional secret agent Bond character, began after watching ‘For Your Eyes Only’ which starred Roger Moore in 1981.

“My late father used to buy or rent James Bond movie video tapes but the most memorable for us was watching ‘A View To Kill’ acted by Roger Moore, at a cinema in Kangar in 1985," he told reporters here.

Mushtari said among the items he had been collecting since 1982 were magazines, vehicle replicas and pistols often used by Bond and the movies’ soundtrack collection, all estimated to be worth over RM25,000.

He also has a collection of digital video discs (DVDs) of the James Bond movie series from the first, ‘Dr No’ in 1962 starring Sean Connery, up to the 24th series ‘Specter’ (2015) featuring Daniel Craig.

“The first item I bought was the Corgi helicopter model replica from the (sequel)‘ For Your Eyes Only and so far I have over 200 of these James Bond items.

“Most of them were bought online through Facebook, eBay and Amazon and the most expensive item was the Box Set Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection (DVD) which was priced at RM500.

“Someone had offered me a higher price for the DVD collection, but I do not intend to sell it,” he said, adding that all his collection of James Bond memorabilia are kept together with over 5,000 records of various types of music from around the world, at his very own Galeri Seni Piring Hitam located at Taman Sena Indah.

“Fans of James Bond films are most welcome to the gallery to view my collection but they are advised to make an appointment in advance,” he said. — Bernama