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Page last updated at 01:11 GMT, Saturday, 20 September 2008 02:11 UK

Berlin Wall slab sold at auction

Part of the remaining Berlin Wall
Few parts of the wall remain standing

A Berlin auction house says it has sold one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall for more than 7,800 euros (£6,150).

The large graffiti-covered stretch of the wall, which once divided capitalist West Berlin from the communist East, was bought for display in an office.

Many fake pieces of the Berlin Wall have been sold in the past, but the auctioneers said this item was genuine.

The wall was demolished in 1989, after the collapse of the East German state.

For nearly three decades, it kept East and West Berliners apart.

Much of the demolished wall was used for constructing roads. Other sections were collected and eventually used in a monument to Germany's division.

Authentic pieces are in museums around the world, including at the Imperial War Museum in London.

About 1,065 people were killed trying to escape from East Germany, scores of them at the Berlin Wall.




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