Who do you think you are bidding Mr Hitler? (From Thisisdorset)

Who do you think you are bidding Mr Hitler?

7:00pm Friday 17th August 2007 in News By Echo Reporter

A BOTTLE of Adolf Hitler's champagne that can never be drunk, for fear it was poisoned by the Nazis before they were defeated, has sold for £1,450.

The rare 1937 Moet and Chandon was liberated from Hitler's wine cellar in the Reich Chancellery by an Allied soldier who took it as a souvenir.

The unnamed British soldier never risked opening it and gave it to solicitor Nigel Wilson as a thank you gift for some legal work 15 years ago. Mr Wilson, 62, yesterday put it up for sale at Charterhouse Auctioneers in Sherborne.

It was bought by two Swedish TV presenters who want it for a programme about dictators. Fredrick Wikingsson, said: "We don't know what we'll do with it after the programme. We certainly won't play Russian roulette with it. We might sell it off and donate the money to a Jewish charity."

Auctioneer Matthew Whitney said: "A bottle like this would normally sell for £100 but because of its association with Hitler it was obviously more interesting and valuable.

"Champagne doesn't age well and loses its fizz after about 10 years so it will now be flat and not very nice to drink.

“A bottle like this would normally sell for £100 but because of its association with Hitler it was obviously more interesting and valuable."

Auctioneer Matthew Whitney

"Of course the Nazis did poison bottles in Berlin before the city fell by injecting cyanide through the corks. We can't be certain this was one of those poisoned but it's not worth taking the risk."

Although Hitler was teetotal, he had his own personal stock of wine and champagne at the Reich Chancellery for his guests.

After Germany was defeated in May 1945, Allied soldiers raided Nazi buildings in Berlin for valuable mementoes, including the wine cellar.

Mr Wilson, 62, from Dorset, said: "Some years ago I did some legal work for a man who was a widower and didn't have any children. He gave me the bottle and said he had taken it from Hitler's personal stock in Berlin at the end of the war."

Ian Sayer, a Second World War historian and author of the book Nazi Gold, said: "The British didn't get to Berlin until three months after the war but it isn't impossible a soldier could have picked up a bottle."

The two Swedes, who host a show called the Boston Tea Party on Channel 5, ended up bidding against each other for fun at the auction.

Mr Wikingsson said: "We had a budget of £2,500 pounds but when we realised we could probably get it for £800 we decided to bid against each other for a bit of fun and to annoy our bosses!"