A rare cast of the death mask of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has been sold to an anonymous bidder for £3,600 at an auction in Shropshire, BBC News reported.

The cast was taken in bronze from the original plaster death mask by an art dealer who was visiting Moscow in 1990.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, from Church Stretton-based auction house Mullock's, said: "There are, we believe, only two of these in the West."

The lot included casts of Stalin's right hand and his withered left hand.

Mr Westwood-Brookes said that in official portraits the Soviet dictator always hid this physical deformity.

He said: "The casts that we have here show that his hand was a little withered thing, so you are seeing Stalin as he really was."

The guide price for the death mask of Stalin, who died in 1953, had been between £3,000 and £5,000.