What is purportedly the left leg of the bronze statue, which was toppled by US troops in April last year in one of the most repeated images of the invasion of Iraq, is being auctioned by the Azubo.de website.
The site claims the leg was sold by British troops to a scrap metal dealer in the western German state of Lower Saxony who sold it on to its current owner, identified on the website only by the pseudonym Paul9111.
The top bid for the leg, remounted on a concrete plinth, is running at €9,800 ($12,650) with offers due to close on Tuesday.
But following a complaint from a rival internet auction website, the Duisburg prosecutor's office is trying to establish whether the "piece of world history," as it is dubbed on the site, is genuine.
The bronze statue was pulled down by a US armored car as Iraqis cheered and the world's media recorded the event and its aftermath, with dozens of men beating the statue's face with shoes once it had crashed to the ground.
It was the last statue of the Iraqi leader to be erected in Baghdad, in April 2002, and was designed to commemorate his 65th birthday.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
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