UNITED KINGDOM: Collection of paintings and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler are to go on sale

Record ID: 527639

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Collection of paintings and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler are to go on sale
  • Date: 23rd September 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAN MORRIS, AUCTIONEER AT JEFFERYS AUCTIONEERS SAYING: "The first and foremost was to get the provenance right, it is no good if the provenance is not right not to hold the sale first and foremost. And on the wider aspect, being that these pictures were of historical nature and done in the First World War, 1916-1918, rather than of somebody who, as we
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2006 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVAJ3ZNHGTK5L93D35YYEVOU0SC
  • Story Text: A collection of paintings and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler is to go on sale in the United Kingdom on Tuesday September 26.
    Twenty one pictures in all, watercolours and pencil sketches are to go under the hammer at Jefferys Auctioneers situated in the Cornish village of Lostwithiel.
    The auction house has only attributed the artwork to Hitler and have not said definitively that the watercolours and sketches are genuinely his.
    "First and foremost was to get the providence right, it is no good if the providence is not right not to hold the sale," said Ian Morris, auctioneer for Jefferys.
    Forger, painter and military antiques dealer Konrad Kujau, who died in 2000, copied Hitler's handwriting and sold 60 volumes of the diary to Stern magazine for about 5 million U.S. dollar in 1983.
    Stern, at that time, thought it had landed the biggest scoop in publishing history after reporter Gerd Heidemann obtained the bulk of the diaries. Kujau claimed he had located them in Communist East Germany and could smuggle them into West Germany.
    Kujau is said to drawn on his own knowledge, history books and his imagination to make up the Fuehrer's (leader's) diaries. But soon after the sale, tests uncovered the documents to be fake.
    The Cornish based auction house, is aware off previous attempts of forgers bring Adolf Hitler works declaring them to be genuine and say that every thing has been done in order to authenticate the work prior to bringing the paintings to auction.
    "The history in identifying these paintings is one, the paper has been verified to be of the age around 1916 - 1918 or before so there are no bleaches or nothing that would appear in later paper," said Morris.
    Helping to strengthen the case in authenticating the paintings, Morris says, "The area in which the pictures where painted was when Hitler was on the front line between 1916 and 1918. He is billeted there and when he had his rest periods he moved fifteen to twenty miles away from the front line in the region of Le Quesnoy (France) where he had time to do the paintings then."
    A few of the local residents were split in there views of the paintings going on sale in Lostwithiel.
    "It is just history, it is just part of what happened and a lot of people have made money out of Hitler one way or the other over the years and if those are his paintings and it is of interest to some collector then fine, so be it really," says Finley Bason.
    "Well, I don't like the idea of them really myself," says Lillian Rowe, "But a lot of people will be interested in the sale, won't they? I should imagine that the will be a lot of people bidding. But myself ,I wouldn't be interested."
    German tourist Gerhard Hinz, visiting the village of had this to say on when hearing about the planned auction of Hitler paintings,
    "The problem with the name Hitler is that it is Hitler, said Gerhard Hinz a German tourist visiting the village. "I don't think that you can differentiate between Hitler the painter and Hitler the politician, that is always a problem."
    An elderly Belgian woman is said to be the owner of this collection of work. She is said to have found the pictures in a suitcase in her attic.
    In 2005 a watercolour signed A. Hitler was sold by Jefferys for 5,200 pounds sterling (GBP). That sale prompted this anonymous seller to come forwards and put this collection up for auction through the same auction house. "I think because of the subject a lot of people wish to remain anonymous. We have a lot of buyers that want to buy these paintings and have expressed interest and again they prefer to do their business behind close doors so to speak or mean to keep a low profile. The picture we sold last year, the buyer, a local in the town here of Lostwithiel required or requested to be kept anonymous and that is what we have done." Jefferys have valued each of the watercolours and sketches between 2,000 - 3,000 pound sterling (GBP). Ian Morris is expecting the bidding to take that value of those works much higher due to the notoriety of the artist.
    Ian Morris told Reuters that the auction house did deliberate on the ethics of the sale but concluded, "That these pictures were of historical nature and done in the First World War, 1916-1918, rather than of somebody who, as we all know, what he became later on. This was before that time and before he became political, so that was the reason why we though it was fine to go ahead with the sale."
    The decision for Jefferys to put the pictures up for sale has not escaped criticism.
    "We have had, you know, certainly a few people who are unhappy that the sale is going ahead. I think generally, unfortunately, in all sales and in everything that you do, you are always going to get disapproval of what you do and it is very difficult to please all the people all the time. But I think we certainly have more positive than negative and we have got to go with the positive."
    The public auction is to take place on Tuesday September 26th at the Restormel Lodge Hotel at 1330GMT.
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