Investors are continuing to scramble to buy a piece of history. In London recently, a hat once worn by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini topped bids at an auction of the Italian leader's effects.
The black boat-shaped mutz hat was sold for £2,300 sterling to a private bidder when it went under the hammer in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, more than half a century after his death.
It was among an historic collection of books, private papers and memorabilia liberated from Mussolini's personal library by a British pilot at the end of the second World War. Captain H. Richard Beck retrieved the items from the abandoned Villa Carpena, near Mussolini's native village of Predappio, when he was stationed there towards the end of the war.
His haul also included unpublished photographs of Mussolini and his mistress, books, family photographs and personal letters.
Captain Beck's flying log book, with entries referring to his duties at the villa, fetched £850 but many of the items went for between £15 and £50. The 57 lots were put up for sale by the late Captain Beck's family and raised a total of £7,500 at H.C. Chapman & Son, Auctioneers.
