Auction nets $245,500 for Hitler watercolours, sketches

[Jim O]

A collection of watercolours and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler sold for $245,500 at auction Tuesday in the Cornish town of Lostwithiel in Britain.

hitler-art-cp-10812516.jpg
Watercolour landscape The Church of Preux-au-Bois has been attributed to Adolf Hitler. It sold for $22,300 at auction on Tuesday.

The auction was briefly interrupted by two comedians who shouted "Third Reich" and "Mussolini" before being escorted out by security guards.

Peter Cunningham and Aaron Barschakalso had crashed Prince William's 21st birthday party in 2003, dressed as Osama bin Laden.

The sale of the paintings has been opposed by Jewish groups and others who object to any profit being made in association with the Nazi leader.

But more than 50 onlookers, including military buffs and the curious, gathered in a hotel for the auction of 21 watercolours and two sketches.

Individually, the works sold for prices ranging from $6,800 to $22,300, with the highest price for the painting The Church of Preux-au-Bois. That is in the same range as earlier sales of Hitler's work.

The pieces were found in a farmhouse in Belgium, near where Hitler was stationed in Flanders, and have a signature that appears to be consistent with that of the former German dictator.

However, it is impossible to verify if the paintings were by Hitler, said auction house Jefferys.

"Some people would consider the sale somewhat controversial, but the pieces were executed so long ago — nearly 100 years ago — that they now just represent something of the past," said Jefferys spokesman Chris Walton.

"The paintings are of historical interest rather than artistic merit."


Names kept private

Both the sellers and the buyers are anonymous.

Hitler is thought to have painted hundreds of pieces before becoming Nazi leader, but sale of his works is a thorny issue.

In some European countries, including Germany, it is illegal to buy, own or sell Nazi memorabilia.

The Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., has hundreds of Nazi-related pieces, including four Hitler paintings, but they are locked in vaults and not on display.

"It's in very bad taste," said Rhonda Barad with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group.

"Most auction houses have steered clear of such sales because it offends a lot of people still alive today."


Source: CBC.CA - Canada's News, Money, Sports, Health, Technology & Science, Consumer Life, Arts, and Kids Information Source

[Klaus]

Yes. Very offended. By a picture showing a landscape. Very offended.
They really don't have anything better to do, do they?

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Klaus

Yes. Very offended. By a picture showing a landscape. Very offended.
They really don't have anything better to do, do they?

I know that Simon Wiesenthal isn't all that well liked in Austria (maybe the understatement of the year). The Los Angeles based Center which bears his name is struggling for meaning so many years after the Holocaust so this to me seems a knee jerk reaction from them.

I see these works as no different than other Nazi era memorabilia. If people want to sell and can find others who will spend that kind of cash on these works it is their right.

[temujin77]

Hitler's paintings probably would be better received if they were, well, good :P

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by temujin77

Hitler's paintings probably would be better received if they were, well, good :P

[Klaus]

They are not that bad. I couldn't draw something like this not in a thousand years. But on the other hand I am a lousy painter myself.

I shall go to vienna and trie to study the fine arts. I shall be rejected twice and starve in the public parks for a while. Then I will become a dictator. I shall grow the most disgusting mustache the world has ever seen. That should give the Simon Wiesenthal-Center a something to worry about.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Klaus

They are not that bad. I couldn't draw something like this not in a thousand years. But on the other hand I am a lousy painter myself.

Niether could I draw or paint something even close. I could not draw a stick figure even before I developed this terrible tremor that I have. Now I can barely write legibly.

For some more opinion (and surprisingly not all negative), visit Hanging Hitler - Haaretz - Israel News.