The image, which was accompanied by the words "Hitler is not dead", had been condemned by foreign diplomats as "utterly tasteless".

Somporn Naksuetrong, the manager of the Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in Pattaya, apologised on Sunday. "We did not mean to cause any offence," he said. "We think he is an important historical figure, but in a horrible way."

The billboard had been up for several weeks on the main road from the capital Bangkok to the resort of Pattaya and was meant to promote the museum's planned opening next month.

The use of Nazi imagery does not stir the same emotional reaction in Asia as in the West, and Thailand has had past instances where icons of the genocidal German regime have been used for advertising and entertainment.