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The world record price for a bottle of beer was smashed in Devizes today when a bottle of Lowebrau lager sold for over £10,000.The bottle was recovered from the wreckage of the German airship Hindenburg after it burst into flames as it moored at Lakehurst, New York, on May 6 1937.
It was part of the collection of survivor Richard Kollmer.
The previous highest price for a single bottle of beer is thought to be around £2,500 and auctioneer Alan Aldridge started bidding at £3,000.
There was fierce competition from telephone bidders all over the world, mainly from the US. Mr Aldridge eventually knocked the item down for £9,400.
With buyer's premium, the bottle will cost the purchaser £10,810.
A brass medallion presented to Herr Kollmer by the Nazi Party on his return home was also up for sale and fetched over £8,000.
An electro-plated milk pitcher, also recovered from the wreckage, went for over £9,000.
The prices for the Hindenburg memorabilia dwarfed those for items connected with Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Peter Sellers and Paul McCartney.
A tiny strand of hair from Elvis Presley, no more than 12mm long, went for £850, more than three times its estimate.
A fragment of Kapton Foil from Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the Moon, sold for £2,000, the marital settlement agreement between Peter Sellers and Lynne Frederick also went for just over £2,000 and a rare legal document from the early days of Walt Disney Productions fetched nearly £3,000.
