RELICS of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini are awaiting sale in a Swindon auction house for up to £4,000.
They are two illustrated manuscripts taken from his office wall during the World War Two battle for Monte Cassino.
A British soldier used a bayonet to prise them from the wall as souvenirs of the fierce four-month battle in 1944. Later kept in the Birmingham attic of the private, they are being sold by his family in the wake of his death.
The documents go under the hammer at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Maxwell Street, Old Town, on November 9.
Auction house spokesman Richard Westwood-Brookes said: "These two magnificent manuscripts are extremely rare relics of a major twentieth century figure.
"Apart from the historical connection which is outstanding, they are also fine pieces of manuscript art in a tradition going back to early Medieval times."
Mussolini ruled Italy from 1922 until 1943, and was executed by Italian anti-Fascist rebels in 1945.
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