The Hindu : Front Page : Hitler’s bottle of champagne sold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 19, 2007
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Hitler’s bottle of champagne sold

There are rumours that it is poisoned

London: A vintage bottle of Adolf Hitler’s champagne was sold for £1,400 at an auction in Britain, despite fears that it’s poisoned.

The bottle of 1937 Moet and Chandon, swiped from the German dictator’s wine cellar in Berlin, was bought by two Swedish TV presenters, The Sun reported here on Saturday.

In fact, the bottle was grabbed by a British soldier in Germany as Hitler’s Nazi regime collapsed at the end of the Second World War in 1945. But the unnamed Tommy never opened it because it was rumoured that Nazis had injected the plonk with cyanide. Instead, he gave it to 62-year-old solicitor Nigel Wilson some 15 years ago.

Mr. Wilson put it up for auction at Charterhouse auctioneers in Sherborne, south-west England. The bottle smashed its estimate of £800 when the two presenters, who want to use it for a programme about dictators, bought it. However, they’ll not risk drinking it after filming.

“We certainly won’t play Russian roulette with it. We might sell it and give the cash to a Jewish charity,” the British tabloid quoted Fredrick Wikingsson, one of the TV presenters, as saying. — PTI

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