A suitcase of clothes belonging to the fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini is going under the hammer this weekend.

The auction house in New York says an Army corporal stationed in Italy in the waning days of the Second World War brought home a suitcase of war booty he stowed in his bedroom cupboard in upstate New York for 65 years: Il Duce's clothes.

The brown leather suitcase is purported to have been taken from Benito Mussolini when the dictator and his mistress were captured and shot by partisans in April 1945.

The family of Dr Paul Moriconi, a physician in Rochester, New York, who died last year, says he acquired the clothing from his supervisor, Colonel Charles Poletti.

It is being auctioned in Dallas on Sunday by Greg Martin, an expert in military artefacts who says "the provenance of this material is impeccable".

He estimates it could fetch 10,000 to 15,000 dollars.