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March 25, 2021 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

More fakes from Americana

to Hitler Forgery Industry index | 2021 | to Droog Magazine

 
Introduction


On March 7, 2021 the Reheboth (MA, USA) based Americana Auctions offered two alleged Hitler watercolors and one pencil drawing. All three were obvious fakes. All were accompanied by fraudulent Certificates of Authenticity, all issued by the same person, and similar to the bogus CoAs accompanying the previous fake Hitlers, offered by the same auction house in October and December 2020.


Watercolor 1
Watercolor 2
Drawing


Text of the Certificates of Authenticity

Auction policies
Address auction house



Lot 110: Adolf Hitler Watercolor Landscape. Sold for $1,900.


Click to enlarge.



Description by auctioneer: "Signed A. Hitler watercolor painting of a mountain lake with reflection of trees in water circa 1910-15. 8.5 x 5.5 inches, framed 12 x 10. Comes with COA.


Comment by Droog Magazine:  A pure fantasy work. The CoA originates from Jerry Swallow of SJS Militaria (New Glasgow, N.S., Canada). it was signed by him and "Richard Triolo". Swallow is a known CoA swindler; who  Triolo is unknown; he might be a fantasy figure, invented by Swallow.

Source: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ADOLF-HITLER-WATERCOLOR-LANDSCAPE
_BE44C71968/



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Lot 111: Adolf Hitler Watercolor Landscape. Sold for $2,400.


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Description by auctioneer
: "
Small, early watercolor painting of a summer woodland with wooden bridge over stream signed A. Hitler 1910. 5 x 9 inches, framed 10 x 12. Comes with COA."


Comment by Droog Magazine: 
Another fake with a fraudulent Swallow/Triolo-CoA. 


Source: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ADOLF-HITLER-WATERCOLOR-LANDSCAPE_BE44C71968/


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Lot 112 "Adolf Hitler Pencil Drawing". Sold for $1,400.


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Description by auctioneer: "

Small, early pencil drawing of a water well in landscape signed A. Hitler 1910. 5.25 x 7.5 inches, framed 10 x 12. Comes with COA.


Comment by Droog Magazine: Another fake with a fraudulent Swallow/Triolo-CoA.

Source: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ADOLF-HITLER-WATERCOLOR-LANDSCAPE_BE44C71968/


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Text of the Certificate of Authenticity accompanying lot #110

Transcription of the text on the photos of the CoAs accompanying these "Hitlers"; spelling mistakes are as those in the CoAs.


RE: ADOLF HITLER ARTWORK

The following statement is true and accurate, as was given to me by the mentioned persons and of my own experience.

Date......................

The original owner/buyer of the HITLER art Mr. JOSEPH WEGHOFER, of Vienna Austria, The owner of his estate and person I dealt with Ms. EDNA VOGL, Vienna Austria, Who i was told was the Grand daughter of WEGHOFER

A friend of mine for over 40 years WOLFGANG BLOMBERG now 85 Yrs old, has been a military collector his entite life, as was his father and grandfather, (His father was a personal friend of HITLER up untill 1943) WOLFGANG had told me about 1988

of a big collection of paintings by HITLER, that was in Austria, if they come up for sale he would contact me, again in the vearly 90,s i was asked if i was still interested, by this time we had a computer, up untill 1995-1996 there was little mention of the art, untill late 1997, i was contacted, that EDNA VOGEL was willing to sell some art, and WOLFGANG told me he would get some pictures and go from there, after a few months, i got a message with pictures, i could pick out which pieces i would like, then i did, and there were not a lot of color paintings, maybe 12 or so, most were about 8x10 size and a few postcard sizes, and several graphite drawings and portraits,

I made a cash offer on the color paintings plus some graphite, and said i did not care which ones, as long as they were signed, it ended up we made a deal on a certain amount, and WOLFGANG done the transaction for me, with cash and the shipping of the art to me, I was told that the rest were going to auction in England, which they did about 98-99 and i remember seeing that the lot was sold and went from 3000 to 25,000 per item, also not all paintings were by HITLER, but by several unknown to me artists. So i ended up with a bit more then 20 pieces, which i kept put away untill about 2008 i sold on..... another,, which sold all over the world, USA, GERMANY, JAPAN, ENGLAND, CHINA, [C?]HEZH. REPUBLIC HUNGARY AND RUSSIA.

My self I have been collecting and selling since 1960, and have a lot of good contacts, and have a fine reputation from my steady buyers.

I have spoken with EDNA VOGL a few times before and after our deal, and this is the information I had been given, and backed up by WOLFGANG BLOMBERG,

Her Grandfather JOSEF WEGHOFER was from Vienna , (Her English was fair) and he liked paintings, but i guess it was just a hobby of his, as he had not displayed any, they had just been put away, and that he would on a regular basis buy art work from various vendors all through the early 1900,s and a few after the 1st world war, WEGHOFER died in the mid 1930,s i don't recall the year, but 1935 i think.... But she told me when ,HITLER came to power

the paintings were put away, as they feared they would have a problem...After the death of WEGHOFER the estate was passed to his daughter and son, then passed to her.

The art survived the war and the allied occupation, and were never photographed or talked about, until the late 80,s which is when i was told about, I do beleive that WOLFGANF BLOMBERG,s Father and Grandfather had known about them,but i was never told that..Hitler is a bit of a taboo with him.


EDNA VOGEL told me also, that after the war they thought of burning the art, out of fear of the allies, f[unreadable] having anything with HITLER on it, but never came about.

I beleive that was the last contact with her


This is the HISTORY as I have it and state the above to be true and accurate, and the paintings i have and are selling i fully guarantee 100% original art work by ADOLF HITLER

SIGNED..... Dated....



[signatures of Jerry Swallow and Richard Triolo]


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Auction policies

BUYERS PREMIUM 25%

“CORRECTNESS OF DESCRIPTION: Americana Auctions has exercised reasonable care to catalog and describe correctly the items to be sold, but does not warrant the correctness of description, attribution, authenticity, or condition of said property. ITEMS SOLD AS IS.”


Source: Terms and conditions Americana Auctions, 2020,
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/186685_diverse-winter-estates-auction/


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Address auction house


Americana Auctions
Edmond Tessier
380 Winthrop Street (Rt. 44)
Rehoboth, MA 02769
NY 10016, USA

http://www.americana-auction.com/



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© Compilation Bart FM Droog, 2021.
Photos courtesy Americana Auctions.