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April 25, 2021;
updated 22-08-2021. 10-05-2011: 2 fake Hitlers in Germany 04-12-2011: 1 fake Hitler in Slovakia Exchange rates / value of money 2011 May 10, 2011: 2 fake Hitlers at Hermann Historica, Munich Lots 7706 and 7707 The
Munich based auction house Hermann Historica is,
just like its direct predecessor Graf Klenau, one
of the main suppliers of Hitleriana and other Nazi
militaria. Among the objects it offers many forged
and fake objects, as these two. Hermann Historica, auction 61, Munich, May 10, 2011 Lot 7706: Peterskirche und Viktualienmarkt, München  Click to enlarge  Click to enlarge Description by auctioneer: "Adolf Hitler – a watercolour – Church of St. Peter. Detailed painted depiction of 'der Alte Peter' and the victuals market in Munich, with a part of the Church of the Holy Spirit visible on the right side. Signed at the lower left 'A. Hitler' and titled on the lower right 'München Viktualienmarkt u. Peterskirche'. Matted, in a gilt woooden frame, framed dimensions 46 x 53 cm. The reverse with a glued-on invoice from the Munich firm Georg Zaglmeier – Inh. Max Lottner – Gilding and framing, Fürstenstraße 7 dated 1 Ocober 1917 to Councilor of Commerce Dr. Oskar Ritter von Petri, to whom the watercolour is billed at 15.60 Reichsmarks.
Click
to
enlarge; left Florence #18, right Hermann
Historica 2011,#7706 What is said about the
provenance of Florence #18 is only partially true:
Rodolfo Siviero in all likelihood confiscated or
stole twenty "Hitlers" (twenty, not more, as
Hermann Historica claimed)) from Gerda Bormann
(Martin Bormann's widow), shortly after the war.
Why she had the works with her is unknown, but in
all likelihood not to hand them over to
Siviero.
left
invoice on back of Hermann Historica
2011,#7706; right on back of Beek Hitler.
Both the Standesamt in Beek and the Peterskirche on this 2011 auction can probably be
linked to a third forgery sold in 2009, the so
called "Schork Hitler', also a Standesamt version (auction
57, lot 6249, sold for €63,000).
The hammer price of lot 7706 is unknown. To top of page. Lot 7707: Berglandschaft mit Kapelle (mountain landscape with church) 
Click to
enlarge.
Description by auctioneer:" Adolf Hitler (attributed to) – watercolour 'Berglandschaft mit Kapelle'. Watercolour on paper, signed at lower left 'A. Hitler' and numbered '3'. Mounted, framed dimensions 31.5 x 38 cm. Included is an expertise from Peter Jahn dated Vienna, 17 June 1980, in which Jahn describes this watercolour as the third example in a series of three images in which Hitler used the Salzburg countryside as his motif, as commissioned by the Munich dealer Morgenstern and related to Jahn himself in the 1930s when Jahn was tasked by the German embassy to research early Hitler watercolours. Provenance: Keith Wilson Collection, Kansas City. Published in 'Adolf Hitler als Maler und Zeichner' by Billy F. Price (ed.),page 115, figure 100. Exhibited in 'Prelude to a Nightmare – Art, Politics and Hitler's Early Years in Vienna 1906-1913', Williams College Museum of Art, July – October 2002, illustrated on catalogue page 6. Although
Peter
Jahn – who was charged in 1937 by the NSDAP to
track down Hitler's Vienna watercolours and who
postwar supervised the collection of the Marquess
of Bath – expertised this piece as original work
by Hitler, we nonetheless note that in our opinion
this attribution is questionable.'
An obvious
forgery. Hitler never made mountain scapes.
Morgenstern was a Viennese dealer, not a Munich
one; murdered by the Nazis in 1943. All "Hitlers"
allegedly commissioned by him are obvious fakes.
Peter Jahn was a repeatedly convicted swindler. He
never worked for the German embassy; he was only,
in 1938, for a short time hired by the NSDAP
Hauptarchiv/Schulte Strathaus to search for
Hitlers. At that time he was already dealing in
forged Hitlers. He was soon fired, because even
for the Nazis he was too unreliable. It's not all
nonsense what was stated in the auctioneer's
description: Jahn was in the 1960s and
1970s the art consultant of the Marquess of Bath
(which says a lot about the authenticity of the
late Marquess's collection of “Hitlers”). And
Keith Wilson was indeed an American collector of
Hitleriana – and apparently one of many who was
fooled by Jahn's lies.
The
Slovak news
medium HN interviewed the auctioneer shortly
before the auction. "When I
look at
Hitler as a painter, he was a talented boy from
the beginning, he even tried to
get to university without anyone paving his way to
it," Jaroslav Krajňák,
director of the Darte auction company, which told
the auction, told HN where
Hitler's work will be auctioned for the first time
in Slovakia, he is
organizing on Sunday. (…) There’s much intereset
for the work, also
from abroad. I believe that the end price
will climb high, such works have been auctioned in
Austria for 50 thousand
euros. We will see how it goes in our country, as
there are no works of him
available, "added Krajňák. "The work originates
from the collection
of a large collector from Slovakia, who inherited
it from his parents. They
probably worked in Vienna, where the work probably
comes from, and now they
have offered it to us for auction," Krajňák
confirmed."
Lucia Čížová. HN, Bratislava,
30-11-2011.
Exchange rates / value of money 2011 1 euro = 1.43 US dollar. 1 US dollar = 0.70 1 euro = 0.88 UK pound 1 UK pound = 1.14 euro 1 euro = 1.27 Swiss francs 1 Swiss franc =0.79 euro Wisselkoersen archief ECB, 13-05-2011. https://wisselkoers-euro.nl/archief-wisselkoersen/2011-05-13/ CPI Inflation Calculator – for US dollars.This inflation calculator uses official records published by the U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/ Convertisseur franc-euro. Pouvoir d'achat
de l'euro et du franc. Le
convertisseur franc-euro mesure l'érosion
monétaire due ŕ l'inflation. Value of the Guilder/Euro. International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/calculate.php © Compilation Bart FM Droog, 2021. |
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