Latest update: 30/03/2009 

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Paintings by Hitler to be auctioned in UK
Paintings by Hitler to be auctioned in UK
Thirteen paintings by Adolf Hitler, forgotten by their owner in his garage until around a month ago, will be put up for sale in April by an auction house in Shropshire, in western England.

AFP - Landscape paintings by Adolf Hitler are to be sold by an auction house in Britain next month, it said Wednesday.

The 13 paintings are mainly watercolours. One of a man sitting on a stone bridge appears to be a self-portrait.

Many of the works, painted by Hitler when he was a struggling artist in his 20s, are signed with his initials.

They were found in a garage about a month ago, said Richard Westwood-Brookes of auctioneers Mullock's in Shropshire, a region of western England.

"My vendor, who is a big collector of Second World War memorabilia, bought them from the guy who liberated them in 1945," he said.

"He sold some of them years ago and at that time, he had them valued by an expert.

"Believe it or not, he left the rest of them in his garage. He forgot about them and found them in his garage about a month or six weeks ago."

The works go on sale on April 23 in the town of Ludlow.

In the past, paintings by Hitler have fetched huge sums -- in 2006, 21 works sold in Britain for 118,000 pounds (126,000 euros, 171,000 dollars).

Comments (3)

Hitler paintings

Dear Mr Anonyme of London. I actually didn't attribute the 'Hitler self portrait' the press did, as they also made play of the fact that the paintings were 'lost in the garage' - which they were not, but it made the press a good line for the story. My vendor is neither mysterious nor 'skulking in the shadows of anonymity' as some papers around the world have suggested. it is merely the rules of auction houses that we never divulge the identities of vendors nor purchasers - this applies to anything that we sell. As it happens the only people who are 'skulking in the shadows of anonymity' it seems to me are people like you. As you don't appear to have the courage to identify yourself, you hardly have the moral right to question my bone fides nor indeed question who I am.

Paintings by Hitler to be auctioned in UK

If you believe the story about an avid collector of WW2 memorabilia buying the paintings and then forgetting about them then you will believe anything. Remember the Hitler diaries were authenticated by Trevor Roper, a respected historian. These paintings are being attributed to the Charlie Chaplin lookalike on the basis of his initials on them by Richard Westwood-Brookes (who he?) of a provincial UK auctioneers. You couldn't make it up.

ridiculous

Aren't there enough artist today ?
So now, anyone famous ( not matter the reason of his fame ) can be an artist ? Are we also going to auction the blanket which covered his bed ? The rug on which he swept his shoes before entering his house ?
I thought there was an economical crisis going on... apparently it's not so bad: people still have time to care about uninteresting things... Now let me guess, are we also going to analyze those drawing to see if his subconscious already gave clues about the genocid he would start once adult ?

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