July 28, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

The Hitler Forgery Industry

to Hitler Forgery Industry main page - to Droog Magazine

2000  | Auctions |  Certificates of Authenticity

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazi criminals.

Introduction

Even though the Hitler diaries scandal had made it quite clear that there were many fake Hitlers on the market, the trade in the "authentic" Hitler watercolors and other objects attributed to Hitler continued. 

22-11-2000 - "Hitler" offered by David Irving
 

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22-11-2000 - "Hitler" offered by David Irving

A 'Hitler' watercolor titled "View of Laon, France, 1919", sized 22 cm x 30 cm, "from the estate of Lotte Bechstein", was offered for sale on the site of the David Irving. The owner was possibly a Charles T. from Cleveland, Ohio, US, who sold more alleged Hitlers via Irving.

Irving quotes at this work a certain T., who must be an American, given the way he spells 'watercolor':  "This is the watercolor that generated my correspondence with Dr. Werner Maser and has been published in his latest book. Research reveals that this watercolor was probably presented to the Munich Art Professor Ferdinand Stäger by Hitler in 1919 for an appraisal of his art talent, and that Stáger told him that he had exceptional talent. This may be the last watercolor that Hitler painted"

On the back is written in pencil: "Meiner lieben Lotte, Dein Wolff" - in a handwriting that looks more like Konrad Kujau's than Adolf Hitler's.

The price was $22,000. In 2005 Irving added: "provisionally sold to MH".





It is, not surprisingly, a blatant forgery. Hitler didn't produce watercolors after 1914. The style on this work resembles in nothing the thought to be authentic Hitlers. It might well be a Kujau contraption: a work painted by an unknown artist, enriched with a forged Hitler signature and text by Kujau.

Source:
David Irving. A 1919 painting by Adolf Hitler. Focal Point Publications, 22-11-2000 /27-05-2005
http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/artist/Bechstein/2.html
Archived on:
https://web.archive.org/web/20051121045432/http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/artist/Bechstein/2.html

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© Compilation Bart FM Droog, 2020.

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