MARK RUBERY CHESS
In 2009 a controversial item was put up for bidding at an auction house-a picture of Hitler and Lenin playing chess in 1909. ‘The British auction house, Mullock’s put an etching picturing Hitler and Lenin at a chess board up for bidding. The owner of the picture was sure of its authenticity. Historians, however, were not.
The story is that back in 1909, Adolf Hitler was a jobbing artist in Vienna and Lenin was in exile. The house where they allegedly played the game belonged to a prominent Jewish family that departed from the Austro-Hungarian capital in the run-up to the Second World War and left a part of their property to the housekeeper. The etching and the chess set pictured on it were among the possessions left.
The etching was allegedly drawn from life by the future Führer’s art teacher, Emma Löwenstramm, and is dated 1909 and has the pencil signatures of Hitler and Lenin on the reverse. The image and the chess set belong to the great-great grandson of the housekeeper, who wanted to sell the items. The unnamed vendor asserts that his father devoted all his life to proving the authenticity of the image. The lot is accompanied by a 300-page research document with, it is claimed, proof that the paper and the signatures are original. The preliminary price of the two items was estimated at £40,000.
Experts still doubted the authenticity of the engraving. Historians have no confirmed information that Lenin and Hitler ever met at all. Nor are they sure that Lenin happened to be in Vienna in 1909. Moreover, by that time, Lenin was already bald, whereas the engraving pictures somebody not lacking hair.
When the etching went on auction it failed to attract any bidders … Who that was present that evening does not remember Paul Morphy’s first appearance at the New York City Chess Club? The secretary, Mr. Frederick Perrin, valorously offered to be his first antagonist, and presented about the same resistance as a mosquito to an avalanche. – Frederick Milne Edge