Madoff Wine Collection to Hit Auction Block

Anyone with a taste for toasting the rich, famous and incarcerated might want to bid on this: fraudster Bernard Madoff's wine cellar is coming to the auction block.

Morrel and Company, a New York concern, will hold the sale May 18 on the Internet.

Up for grabs will be 58 lots running from the very upmarket bottle of 1975 Chateau Petrus worth an estimated 700-1000 dollars to a more mundane bottle of Cinzano vermouth expected to fetch perhaps 60 dollars.

"The proceeds from the sale of these items will go towards the general recovery effort," a company statement said.

"As artifacts of history they are unique, which is why we have chosen to offer all of the bottles seized, including those which normally wouldn’t pass muster and make it into our auction.

"Some of the bottles are better viewed as conversation pieces rather than valued for their contents, but conversation pieces they are," it added.

Madoff, 72, who touted himself as one of New York's most successful money managers, was arrested in late 2008 and sentenced in June 2009 to 150 years in prison in what was described as one of the biggest pyramid schemes ever.

His victims, including charities, major banks, Hollywood moguls and savvy financial players, entrusted him with tens of billions of dollars over more than two decades.