Body can’t kill sale of guillotine

– A 150-year-old guillotine with “a few dents on the blade” was sold in Paris yesterday, despite protests from auction regulators.

The three-metre tall instrument of execution which was used to dispatch criminals in France until 1977, was bought by a French millionaire for £8 008 (about R127 000).

The Drouot auction house insisted the model was built as a replica and has never been used to behead anyone, although it did once feature in a museum of torture in the French capital.

The sale of guillotines has been highly controversial in France where the death penalty was only abolished in 1981, with the French auction watchdog already objecting to the sale.

“Objects like this are sensitive,” a spokesperson said. – AFP