ROME (JTA) — The online auction Web site eBay said it took down an ad offering biological samples from Benito Mussolini before anyone could bid on them.
The asking price was $22,000 for samples of the brain and blood of Italy’s World War II fascist dictator, who was executed by anti-fascist partisans in 1945 at the end of World War II.
A collector near Genoa in northern Italy had placed the material for sale, the Italian media said Sunday, along with a letter from a medical technician saying he had taken the samples in 1945 on authorization from the coroner’s office.
The ad, which appeared last Friday, violated Italian law and an eBay policy against selling human body parts, eBay said.
Mussolini’s granddaughter Alessandra, a far-right member of the Italian parliament, denounced the ad.
The Italian eBay site has numerous items of Mussolini memorabilia and collectibles for sale, including autographs, photos, bank notes, publications and various knick-knacks.
