Paintings by Hitler to be auctioned
More than 30 works up for sale this Saturday
More than 30 artworks purportedly created by Adolf Hitler will go up for sale on Saturday at an auction house in Nuremberg.
According to The Washington Post, the Auktionshaus Weidler is set to auction off dozens of works signed or initialed by the Nazi leader. The online catalog for the auction notes that “the items come from Austrian or rather European private ownership, originally from famous artists of the Third Reich, their heirs or from the estates of collectors.”
The works span the period from 1907 to 1936, and the most expensive item is set to begin bidding at €45,000 (NIS 185,600). The auction also includes a nude drawing Hitler made in 1929 of his niece, Geli Raubal, which is slated to begin bidding at €3,500 (NIS 14,400).
In 2015, the same auction house held a sale of Hitler’s works, ultimately selling 14 paintings and drawings. According to The Guardian, those works were sold for a total of €391,000 (NIS 1.6 million); the highest-price work was a painting of a Bavarian castle that sold for €100,000 (NIS 412,000). Over the years, Auktionshaus Weidler has held several similar sales.
Such auctions, while legal in Germany, have always generated controversy. In 2015, the auction house said that among its buyers were investors from China, France, Brazil, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
Hundreds of Hitler artwork pieces are known to exist, though most are held by the US Army, which confiscated them after the Allied victory at the end of World War II.
Last month, three watercolors purportedly by Hitler were slated to be auctioned off in Berlin, until police confiscated them shortly before the sale, claiming they were forgeries.
Reuters contributed to this report.