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March 23, 2021 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

Another Horváth-"Hitler"

to Hitler Forgery Industry index | 2021 | to Droog Magazine

The Liechtenstein based auction house Militaria 321.com offers an alleged Hitler watercolor for €5,500. Bids can be made until April 3, 2021.

The work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by Hans O.A. Hórvath, an Austrian artist known for his obsession with Geli Raubal and the fraudulent CoAs he issued in the 1990s to clearly fake Hitlers.

The seller is somebody who calls himself "Simon1988666" from 3730 Eggenburg, Austria.

Militaria 321.com states: ""Der Anbieter garantiert uneingeschränkt für die Echtheit dieses Stückes und gewährt darauf ein Rückgabe-recht innerhalb von 31 Tagen ab Versanddatum/Poststempel."

In English (we present here our translation; not the the very bad one made by the auctioneer): "The consignor fully guarantees the authenticity of this work and grants a right of return within 31 days from the date of dispatch.postmark."

The consignor stated additionally: "This watercolor was supposed to be auctioned at the Weidler Nuremberg auction house last year. Before the auction, all Hitler paintings were confiscated by the Nuremberg Public Prosecutor's Office. This watercolor was examined for months by the art experts appointed by the prosecution. Ultimately, it could not be proven that the present watercolor is a forgery, as initially assumed. And so the watercolor was given to the auction house and then back to me. In my opinion, this confirms even more that this is an original watercolor by Adolf Hitler."

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The mass seizure of the "Hitlers"

The seizure of the alleged Hitlers happened in February 2019, when 31 alleged Hitlers were about to be auctioned in Nuremberg. An additional 37 were found in the storage space of the auction house. The work offered here was among the works in the storage space - as it can't be traced in the original auction catalog (see Report on alleged Hitler paintings and drawings auction by Auktionhaus Weidler).

As the police was unable to prove that a number of the seized works was positively not made by Hitler (for instance because the paints or supports used weren't produced before 1945), these works were handed back to the owners. Yet this doesn't mean at all that these works are authentic Hitler paintings.

In fact, we are quite sure that all works seized at Weidler were fakes, not even forgeries - as these alleged Hitlers didn't even resemble the few believed to be authentic ones.

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The work

Click to enlarge.

"Wien, Freyung, Blumenmarkt". Dimensions (according to Horváth): 16,2 x 23,9 cm. Watercolor on cardboard.

Even though the subject (Viennese cityscape) of this work is similar as that on the believed to be authentic Hitlers from his Viennese period, the hand and style are clearly different. And so is the signature. According to Horváth "examples' of this work are represented in the Werkkatalog - another title for the book Adolf Hitler als Maler und Zeichner, a.k.a Price.

The "examples" mentioned by Horváth consist of only one photo of an alleged Hitler painting, Price #163:

Click to enlarge.

In Price this clearly different work depicts more or less the same scene. Dimensions given in Price are 25,5 x 33 cm, and as title "Wien, Freiung und Schottenkirche" is mentioned. Signed: "A. Hitler 1909". But... in 1909 Hitler made no paintings at all.

So, is the present one a copy of the work depicted in Price? Probably not.

The work depicted in Price is a copy of a postcard with a depiction of this painting by Ernst Graner (1865-1943), a well known Austrian watercolor painter:

Click to enlarge. Source: Akpool.de.

This particular postcard of a Graner watercolor has a post stamp from 1926.

A search on Google Images learns that many works attributed to Hitler are copies of Graner works or original Graner works upgraded with a fake Hitler signature.

There exists many postcards and paintings with this similar scene. For instance this one, from Rudolf Schmidt (1873-1963):

Click to enlarge. Source: artnet.com.

The prices for such original paintings are in many cases quite low, making it ideal material for forgers to upgrade with a false "A.Hitler" signature. If a watercolor made in the 1910s is upgraded in this way, it will be almost impossible, on basis of forensic research, to detect it as a fake Hitler.

Human figures on the Militaria321 work. Too abstract for a Hitler.

But, as the hand of Hitler is quite recognizable, as is his distinctive style of depicting human figures, one can judge that the work offered by "Simon1988666"/ Militaria 321.com is not an authentic Hitler work.

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Conclusion

The statement of the consignor, "In my opinion (...) this is an original watercolor by AdolfHitler" is based on no grounds at all. The work has no known provenance, it is accompanied by "Expertise" of a known CoA swindler, it was found at an auction house where 68 alleged Hitlerswere stored - which is suspicious in itself - and the work doesn't resemble any believed to be authentic Hitler watercolor.

Simon(lot of numbers) stated too: "The consignor fully guarantees the authenticity of this work". This statement is worthless. Just as the police couldn't prove that this work is a fake, Mr. Simon can't prove or guarantee its authenticity.

Probably we will never know who really made this work. But we're convinced that, whatever the true identity of the artist / copiist or forger is, it wasn't made by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).

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The Certificate of Authenticity (CoA)

Click to enlarge.

The Horváth CoA is undated, and states only:

"The work presented to me is, in my opinion, the work of Adolf Hitler.

On the back of the cardboard a stamp print originating from Leonding is placed.
Private owner from Leonding.
Examples available in the catalog of works.

I placed at the back of the work my distinguishing mark stamp print."

Horváth attached at the CoA a postcard, suggesting that this was the original for the artist. We haven't traced this particular postcard yet.

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Auction policies

"The company ASA (Auktions Service Anstalt) with its headquarters in Vaduz / Liechtenstein provides the website MILITARIA321.COM (www.militaria321.com) as a service to enable the auctioning of articles. MILITARIA321.COM is not involved in any form of actual trade between seller and buyer. We are therefore not responsible for the quality, safety or legality of the items that are offered. We also do not guarantee that the seller can actually sell the item, or that the buyer will buy the item.”

Source: Auction policies, ASA 2021.
https://www.militaria321.com/agb.cfm

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Address auction house

Militaria321.comis a division of:

ASA (Auktions Service Anstalt)
Austraße 49
Postfach 1260
FL-9490 Vaduz
Liechtenstein

https://www.militaria321.com/

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