A child peers over the Berlin Wall

Unique Item of the Week... a piece of the Berlin Wall

In 2008, a fragment of the notorious Wall which divided East and West Berlin went to auction

It has been described as the 'longest art gallery in the world.'

But, when the Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989 after the collapse of the East German state, much of it was used for constructing roads.

Yet, for many people, the few remaining sections of the Wall offer vital memorabilia of one of the greatest European social upheavals of the 20^th century.

In 2008, a Berlin auction house announced that it had sold one of the few remaining sections of the Wall for over €7,800 (a then-equivalent of £6,150).

The Wall has been described as 'the longest art gallery in the world' because of its graffiti

Daubed in the famous graffiti which covered much of the Wall, the large section was reportedly bought for display in an office.

Since its demolition, other fragments of the Wall - which divided East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years - have also been collected and used as monuments.

A preserved section of the Wall still stands in Berlin's Bernauer Straße, beside a dedicated museum; while other pieces can be found in museums around the world, including London's Imperial War Museum.

Around 1,065 were killed trying to escape from East Germany during its division from the West, many of them at the Berlin Wall.

Today, the Wall and its pieces stand as one of the most important and unique memorabilia artefacts of the 20^th century.

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Images: Tamas Szabo (top) and Noir (bottom)