A record-breaking online auction of rare whiskies has been postponed indefinitely after being targeted in a cyber-attack.

The sale of Richard Gooding’s “The Perfect Collection” was marketed as “the largest and most unprecedented private whisky collection ever to be offered for public sale”.

The first phase of the auction, consisting of more than 1,900 bottles, fetched more than £3.2m earlier this year.

The second phase of the auction, made up of 1,958 lots, went up on the Whisky Auctioneer website on 10 April.

One of the world’s most sought-after whiskies, the Macallan 1926 Fine and Rare 60 Year Old, was expected to fetch more than £1m at the auction.

“The website is currently offline whilst we continue to actively investigate this. The auction of The Perfect Collection: Part Two has been postponed indefinitely with further updates on this and future auctions to follow.”

During the first phase of the sale, Whisky Auctioneer became the first site to sell a million-dollar bottle, with several other lots achieving world record hammer prices.