Officials at a British museum dedicated to Winston Churchill said they do not know who altered a prominently displayed photograph to remove the leader's cigar.

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John Welsh, manager of The Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience museum in London, said he was shocked when a museum visitor pointed out the picture hanging above the entrance, a reproduction of an iconic image of Churchill giving the "V" for victory salute, had been digitally altered to remove a cigar from the World War II leader's mouth, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Welsh said he does not know who was responsible for the doctored image.

"We've got all sorts of images in the museum, some with cigars and some without. We've even got wartime adverts for cigarettes in the lift down to the air-raid shelter, so we wouldn't have asked for there to be no cigar," he said.