March 17, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

'Hitlers' on sale in Kent

UK auctionhouse fuels the fake

Nazi militaria market

update: 'Hitlers' withdrawn

to Hitler Forgery Industry main page - to Droog Magazine

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

2020 |

© Bart FM Droog, 2020

 Three artworks "said to have been painted by Hitler" are to be auctioned on Wednessday March 18 by C&T Auctioneers at Kenardington, Kent. These are an oil painting of a mountain view, dated 1913; a sketch of a German shepherd dog dated 1923 and a watercolor depicting a forest view, dated 1921.

Even though the auctionhouse will not guarantee the authenticity of these works,  it states that two of the three have labels on its reverse, with ink stamps from the Alte National Gallery Berlin on it. C&T Auctions: “The labels state the items to be original.”

This might be so – these labels are not shown in the catalogue – but original artworks attributed to Hitler were never owned or exhibited in any German museum at all, let alone the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin – which specializes in 19th century art. And Hitler, born in 1889, was certainly not a 19th century artist.
So it is quite clear that these labels are forgeries.

And the alleged Hitlers? Three artworks, which in nothing resemble the thought to be original Hitler sketches and watercolors (which in fact aren't true watercolors at all, merely colored in drawings).

Hitler didn't make oil paintings – so exit the mountain view. He only made colored in depictions of Viennese and Munich city views, in respectively 1910-1913 and 1913-1914, with one exception, a colored in drawing of a restaurant in Linz, titled Postlingberg, dated 1906. So exit the watercolor from 1921. This leaves us with the shepherd dog drawing. Is that then a real Hitler artwork? Nope – as far as is known Hitler never sketched his dogs. He merely had them poisoned – as described in The Death of Hitler, 1995.

So, these three artworks, are “said to have been painted by Adolf Hitler” by nobody but C&T Auctions. As these works are signed 'A.Hitler', by somebody who clearly wasn't Adolf Hitler, the signatures itself are fraudulent. Exactly because of this, the German police confiscated in 2019 more than sixty alleged Hitler artworks.

More fake junk

These three 'Hitlers' are not the only fake items this auction house offers: the other 113 lots with alleged authentic Nazi militaria consist for a considerable part of cheap replicas, as is determined by the Swiss Nazi medals and badges specialist Jo Rivett.

In 2019 C&T Auctions made some headlines by offering for £5,000 a dagger allegedly from Hitler's personal chauffeur Erich Kempka. No solid evidence for its authenticity was presented. It also sold a replica admiral's baton, allegedly once owned by Hitler's successor, admiral Karl Dönitz, for nearly £25,000. The only 'evidence' for the provenance of this item was a letter, which had all the characteristics of a forgery.

The press spokesperson of the State Musea in Berlin, to which the Alte Nationalgalerie belongs, informed us that the police in England and the auctionhouse have been informed about the fake labels.

C&T Auctions did not respond to our request for further information about the three alleged Hitlers. 

Update - On March 15, 2020 the Hitlers (lot 322) were withdrawn from the upcoming auction.

Sources

Matthew Tredwen, C&T auctioneers and Valuers. E-mail to Bart FM Droog, 15-03-2020.
Catalogue Military Webcast & Postal Auction, 18/03/2020. C&T Auctions, Kenardington, Kent, UK.
https://bid.candtauctions.co.uk/m/view-auctions/catalog/id/12
Dr. Karl Springer. Bundes Polizeidirektion Wien, Sicherheitsbureau, s.B. 17105/36, November-December 1936. NSDAP Hauptarchiv NS 26/2599; Bundesarchiv Berlin.
NS 26 Hauptarchiv der NSDAP / 3 Adolf Hilter / 3.3 Künstlerisches Schaffen. Files NS 26 1-43a, 64 (files on Hitlers artworks, compiled in 1938-1944 by NSDAP Hauptarchiv (Main Archive), Bundesarchiv Berlin.
Ada Petrova and Peter Watson. The Death of Hitler. The Full Story with New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives. W.W. Norton & Company. New York / London, [1995].
Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog &. List of Lists. List of watercolors, oil paintings and sketches allegedly made by Adolf Hitler and known to be in existence before May 1945. Droog Magazine, Eenrum. 2019.
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/alte-nationalgalerie/home.html

Luke Andrews. SS dagger belonging to Adolf Hitler's personal chauffeur who had the macabre job of burning his and Eva Braun's bodies goes on sale for £ 5000. Daily Mail. London, 07-07-2019.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7221615/SS-dagger-belonging-Adolf-Hitlers-personal-chauffeur-goes-sale-5-000.html
Amelia Wynne. Replica ceremonial baton made for Adolf Hitler's successor Grand Admiral Karl Donitz sells for nearly £25,000 at auction (but original that was swiped as a souvenir by a British soldier is worth up to 10 times its value). Daily Mail. London, 23-12-2019.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7821893/Replica-ceremonial-baton-Adolf-Hitlers-successor-sells-nearly-25-000-auction.html


With special thanks to Marc-Oliver Boger from the Kujau Kabinett, who spotted these three fake Hitlers.

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