Mata Hari’s belongings go up for auction

Almost a century after her execution, famous Dutch spy Mata Hari's few belongings are going up for auction. The auction is scheduled for Friday, April 1st, in De Zwaan auction house in Amsterdam, ANP reports. The belongings include some jewelry, a Chinese marble sculpture, a pendulum, opera glasses and silver cutlery. It is believed that Hari gave these possessions to her friend artist Piet van der Hem for safe keeping in 1916. They eventually ended up in the hands of a notary. It is this notary's cousin that is now putting them up for auction. Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in Friesland in 1876. In Paris she worked as a scantily clad dancer under the stage name Mata Hari. During the First World War she slept with senior French officers and pilfered military secrets. She was sentenced to death in France in 1971. Late last year the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden acquired her original death sentence.