Why the auction of five paintings attributed to Adolf Hitler failed

The auction held this Saturday in Germany with five fabrics attributed to Adolf Hitler failed because they were not interested by acquiring the images.

The auction house Weidler did not specify the reasons for its failure, although the high values ​​demanded and doubts about the authenticity of the tissues had an influence.

However, the auction house managed to sell two objects that would have belonged to Hitler: a Meissen porcelain vase, for 5,500 euros (6,200 dollars) and a tablecloth for a minimum price of 630 euros.

A wicker chair with a swastika on its back, whose initial price was 6,500 euros ($ 7,300), bore no interest.

The five fabrics left without buyers – whose initial prices were between 19,000 and 45,000 euros, between $ 21,000 and $ 51,000 – show bucolic landscapes, but the auction was surrounded by an inflamed controversy.

Ulrich May, mayor of Nuremberg, former Reich stronghold and auction location, denounced in the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung an initiative of "bad taste".

On Wednesday, the auction catalog included 26 other paintings. These had to be removed after the German justice seized them, with 37 other works signed "A. H." or "A. Hitler", for doubts about its authenticity.

The paintings and objects came from 23 different owners, according to the auction house, which denies any irregularity and says cooperate with the police and justice.

"We are investigating the Nuremberg Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of falsification and attempted fraud," he said. AFP Attorney General Antje Gabriels-Gorsolke.

"If it is shown that they are false, we will check who knew something in the chain of custody," he added. Some works are accompanied by certificates of authenticity, but they could also be false.

The Weidler house has stated that the fact that 63 works were the subject of an investigation by the police "does not automatically mean that they are false".

The auctions of Hitlerite works of art are regularly controversial in Germany, a country that makes the penance of Nazism a central element of its identity.

Sales are aimed at satisfying the demand of collectors, often foreigners, who are willing to spend considerable sums of money on acquiring property from the dictator or other regime figures who exterminated six million Jews during the Second World War.

The Weidler house has already sold several paintings attributed to Hitler, including two watercolors for 32,000 euros in 2009.

But there are also many false or doubtful works circulating. On January 24, the police seized three watercolors attributed to Hitler that were going to be auctioned in Berlin the same day, also in this case because of doubts as to its authenticity.

Experts consider the paintings of Hitler, who suspended his examination of entry to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, they are difficult to authenticate, both because there is no accurate catalog and because of its poor quality. And the graphological study of the company is considered as insufficient evidence.
However, "there is a long tradition for this profession of devotion to Nazism," says AFP Stephan Klingen of the Central Institute for the Art History of Munich.

"Every time […] there is noise in the media […] and the prices they are rising are rising continuously, "he said. That's what bothers me, "added Klingen.