A rare stamp featuring a picture of Audrey Hepburn smoking is set to go on sale on Germany - eight years after the star's son ordered the entire print run be destroyed.

The stamps were commissioned by the German government in 2001 as part of a collection featuring portraits of stars including Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.

But Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, objected to the photo of his late mother which had been used on the stamp because it showed her with a cigarette holder dangling from her lips.

He refused to grant copyright and all of the stamps were destroyed apart from 30 advanced copies which were saved from destruction by a postal employee.

One of the rare stamps - one of only five surviving copies - is now set to go under the hammer on Tuesday (26May09) in Berlin, Germany. It has a reserve bid set at $41,959 (£27,972).

Hepburn died in 1993 at the age of 64.