CUTLERY once owned by an infamous Hitler aide is to be auctioned in Swindon.

The hallmarked 71-piece set is engraved with the personal monogram of Nazi Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering.

And the story behind it suggests Goering may have tried to buy a bolthole in Argentina as the Allies smashed the Third Reich.

The cutlery, in a red plush case marked with Goering's silver Reichsmarshal badge, came originally from the Nazi's yacht, Fournier.

The sale will be held at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Maxwell Street on November 9, with an expected price of up to £15,000.

Spokesman Richard Westwood-Brookes said: "The canteen of cutlery has come to us from Argentina.

"The story is that at some time during the mid-1940s a mysterious German turned up and wanted to buy some land there quite a large piece.

"This man offered the canteen of cutlery as part payment or a bond or something like that for the land transaction.

"But the man said he would want the cutlery back as soon as the money was paid. The mysterious German disappeared. In 1988, the cutlery changed hands again, this time as payment for some dental work."

It is his son who has decided to sell the silverware, which he personally handed to auctioneer Dominic Winter after flying to London.

At the end of World War Two, many prominent Nazis fled to South America, fearing prosecution over atrocities committed by the regime. Many of these countries' leaders were, if not openly supportive of Nazism, willing to turn a blind eye to the presence of Nazis.

This was especially true if those Nazis were wealthy.

Of those who settled in Argentina, the most prominent was Karl Adolf Eichmann, who handled the logistics of the Holocaust.

Captured in his new home by top agents of the Israeli secret service, he was hanged in Israel in 1962.

Mr Westwood-Brookes said: "It is possible to speculate that the whole purpose behind the land deal was to provide Goering with a South American bolt hole after the war."