Friday, August 17, 2007

'Hitler's champagne' fetches £2,000

By Paul Willis

A bottle of champagne reputed to have come from Adolf Hitler's personal wine cellar fetched nearly £2,000 at auction today. The bottle was only expected to fetch around £500 but interest from telephone bidders across Europe pushed up the cost. In the end, the bottle was snapped up by a Swedish buyer for £1,688 at Charterhouse auctioneers in Sherborne, Dorset.

However, it is unlikely the new owner will be celebrating his new purchase by cracking open the champagne. Charterhouse valuer Chris Copson said: "There was a rumour that some of the bottles of champagne had been poisoned by injecting through the cork which might be why the soldier never actually drank it. "Champagne doesn't particularly age well anyway, but in light of that information I would say it's extremely unlikely that anyone would want to drink it anyway."

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