August 27, 2021, updated 28-08-2021.

A "Hitler" with Altenberg seal?

to Hitler Forgery Industry index | 2021 | to Droog Magazine

 
Introduction |   The work  | Hitler's easel?

Auction policies | Address auction house

Introduction

On February 27, 2021 the UK based Mullock's Auctions (Church Stretton, Shropshire) sold a watercolor attributed to Adolf Hitler for £18,000.

The work, in all likelihood a fake (as far as is known Hitler never depicted this church on one of his Viennese "watercolors"), had one remarkable feature. On its back an Altenberg seal was attached.

Since we started to publish about our investigations into fake Hitlers, late 2017, it became known that Jacob Altenberg (1875-1944) had been Hitler's biggest client in 1910-1913. Yet until that time only "Hitlers" with Morgenstern stamps and seals had emerged.

Samuel Morgenstern (1875-1943) had been in that same period in Vienna another buyer of Hitler's "watercolors". He surely hadn't been one of Hitler's main customers - otherwise Reinhold Hanisch would have mentioned him and not Altenberg in the first interview he gave about their mutual time, in the Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung, 1933. 

But only because the Austrian art swindler Peter Jahn told in the years 1960-1990 that many of his "Hitlers" (almost all of them fakes) originated from Morgenstern, gullible historians repeated Jahn's lies, and thus poor Morgenstern's name (who was murdered by the Nazis) was more and more abused by forgers for concoctions about the provenance of their products.

Photos of these Morgenstern stamps and seals were in 1983 depicted in Adolf Hitler als Maler und Zeichner a.k.a. Price, the alleged catalogue raisonné of Hitler's artworks, which in reality is a mix of reproductions of many forgeries and a limited number of authentic works. In Price book not a single Altenberg seal or stamp was mentioned at all.

We didn't encounter any such seal on alleged Hitlers  before this 2021 Mullock's auction. Even though plenty of original Altenberg seals are anno 2021 to be found, simply because Altenberg owned a frame factory and at least three shops, and produced numerous frames from 1898 to 1938. 

So, this all makes us believe that a forger has read our articles on the Hitler forgery industry, then sought an authentic Altenberg seal (or produced a new one, which isn't difficult to do), removed it from the original object and applied it with a fake Hitler signature to this particular painting.

The painting itself may originate from the 1910s, but we're quite sure that it wasn't made by Hitler and that the signature was applied to it much later, and again: not by Adolf Hitler.

More fake Hitlers from Mullock's

This was not the first time this auction house offered a fake Hitler. In 2009-2019 it organized at least 14 auctions at which numerous fake Hitlers were offered. See our special report (2019) on Mullock's.

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A "Hitler" with Altenberg seal?

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Lot 761: "Attributed Adolf Hitler Artwork within Jacob Altenberg marked...." Sold for £18,000.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Work in frame. Click to enlarge.

Close-up of seal.

Description by auctioneer: "Attributed Adolf Hitler Artwork within Jacob Altenberg marked Frame with dealer’s label. The watercolour depicts a scene of Franziskaner Church in Vienna with A Hitler to bottom right corner, undated, painting measures 20x26.5cm approx, blank to reverse. Altenberg, an Austrian businessman and picture frame dealer was in regular contact with a young Adolf Hitler in Vienna and bought several of his paintings between 1909-1913. The paintings were used by Altenberg as additions to the more attractive design of the frames he offered which were easier to sell with a filler than when offered blank. This particular painting originally came from a Munich family with a senior member of the NSDAP party and early days SA ‘Sturmabteilung’ in Bavaria. Via inner party contacts, the painting was offered at a time when the Fuhrer was already quite popular within the party but before reaching the ultimate authority over the country. Purportedly, the frame broke after WWII, it made space to hide the paintings signature and has since remained the same.

Comments by Droog Magazine:

1. A Hitler work with this title is not mentioned in Price and was not registered by the NSDAP Hauptarchiv in the 1930s.

2. The signature doesn’t look like any signature on believed to be authentic Hitler watercolors.

3. The Altenberg seal, even though it might be an authentic one (but is it?), was never before seen at the back of believed to be authentic Hitler “watercolors”. Anno 2021 many authentic Altenberg seal can be found on frames once produced by the Altenberg company.

Authentic Altenberg seal on non-Hitler related objects, in circulation in 2021 (click to enlarge). Take notice that on these the address of the factory (Fabric) is mentioned, which is absent on the seal on the Mullock´s "Hitler".

Three other Altenberg seals, found in 2021 (click to enlarge) . Above two from 1928 or before. The one the right is from 1928-1938. Dating these seals is possible because of modernization of the telephone system in Vienna in 1928. Before 1928 the subscribers were at first issued number in number sequence. The first subscriber had number 1, the second number 2, the thousand-and-first phone number 1001 and so on. This worked as long as telephone centrals were operated by telephonists, who made the connections manually.

In 1928 all subscribers received new numbers, consisting of the letters I, F, A, B, R, U, M, L, Y, Z, followed by five digits. The I stood for the 0 on the dial, the F for the 1, the A for the 2, etcetera. In this way all subscribers had the same number of digits, making automatic connections possible. That system, with the first digit replaced by a letter, remained in use until 1957 -1958. At right a Viennese phone dial, as used in 1928-1957/1958.

4. The provenance can’t be checked.

5. The story on the frame is very strange. How would a broken and repaired frame suddenly 'make room' to cover the image? On the contrary, more space would be created if a part is no longer possible to make. What the auctioneer states about this makes no sense.

6. The auction house’s history of trading in fake Hitlers is another alarm bell.

Conclusion: all this makes us think that this work is a fake. It is upgraded with an probably authentic Altenberg seal by somebody who studied our articles on the Hitler forgery industry. But he (she? it?) didn’t study these enough, otherwise he would have known that this Altenberg seal brands the work as a fake.    

Sources:

Hitler als Bettler in Wien [Interview with Reinhold Hanisch]. Wiener Sonn- und Montags-Zeitung, Wien, 21. Augustus 1933, pages 7 und 8.

NS 26 Hauptarchiv der NSDAP / 3 Adolf Hitler / 3.3 Künstlerisches Schaffen. Files NS 26 1-43a, 64 , 2599. Bundesarchiv Berlin.

Billy F. Price [= August Priesack and Peter Jahn]. Adolf Hitler als Maler und Zeichner. Ein Werkkatalog der Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Architekturskizzen. Gallant Verlag, Zug, 1983. English version: Adolf Hitler. The unknown artist, Billy F. Price Publishing Co., Houston TX, 1984.
https://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/price.html

Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog. De S. Morgenstern-zegel. De S. Morgenstern-stempel. Zegels en stempels met een geurtje. [ The S. Morgenstern seal. The S. Morgenstern stamp print. Seals and stamps with a scent.] Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 2017-2018.
https://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/morgenstern-zegel.html#hrzen

Photos of other Altenberg seals. Courtesy Catawiki, Marktplaats and:.
http://legacy1.seier.at/contenido_43_beta/schildersammler/front_content.php?client=25&lang=14&idcat=419&idart=5101&m=&s=

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/wall-decorations/paintings/secessionist-scene-tyrol-brilliant-fauvist-painting-austria/id-f_4495523/

https://www.bukowskis.com/en/lots/1009734-unknown-artist-four-silk-paintings-20th-century

Online Auction catalog Mullock's Auctions, 27-02-2021.
https://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/lot-749494-attributed_adolf_hitler_artwork_within_jacob_altenberg_marke.html
https://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/lot-749495-beechwood_easel_franz_drury_munich_attributed.html

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Hitler's easel?

Lot 762 at the same auction was an easel, attributed to Adolf Hitler. Sigh.

OHitler's alleged easel. Click to enlarge.

Description by auctioneer: "Beechwood Easel by Franz Drury of Munich attributed to being Adolf Hitler’s – Liberated by an Anglo American Liason Officer from the Brown House – Hitlers Bavarian HQ in 1945. Accompanied with a hand written letter dated July 1979 by the brother of the Officer ‘This is to inform that the easel…was taken by my brother, Captain GF Watman from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi HQ at Munich in 1945…when he was an Anglo American Liason Officer with the US Forces liberating Berlin.

 The item is the untouched artist’s easel that the young Adolf Hitler used when he was an art student. This was told to my brother by a Nazi party Woman curator of the Brown House Museum. She was discovered living in a basement and led the troops to where she and the SS had hidden the items from the museum from the liberating forces. She did this, according to my brother because she needed to provide for a young son she had given birth to.

According to my brother there were many items in the museum basement including Hitler’s pistol, an ornate ring and photographs of him. All were taken by the US Forces. My brother took the easel and mailed it back to himself on Forces post. It arrived safely!!’, with the maker’s plaque to the easel, measures 117cm approx.

Guide price £4000 - £6000. Not sold.”

So much for the story on the easel.


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Terms and conditions of sale

"The Auctioneers act as agents only.  Each lot, as set out in the Catalogue or as divided or joined with any Lot or Lots at the Sale at the sole discretion of the Auctioneers, is sold with all faults, imperfections and errors of descriptions, and neither the Vendors nor the Auctioneers are responsible for the authenticity, attribution, genuineness, origin, authorship, date, age, period, condition of quality of any lot.

All statements whether made orally or contained in any catalogue, advertising matter, or made in any manner as to any such matters, are statements of opinion and are not to be taken as or implying, statements or representation of fact.

Purchasers are deemed to have satisfied themselves by inspection or otherwise, as to all such matters and as to the physical description of any lot.

Neither the Vendor nor the Auctioneer make or give, nor has any person in the employ of the Auctioneers or Vendors any authority to make or give a representation or warranty, and in any event, neither the Vendor nor the Auctioneers are responsible for any statement howsoever made or expressed."

Source:

https://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/terms-conditions


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Address auction house

Mullock’s Ltd
Specialist Auctioneers & Valuers:
The Old Shippon, Wall under Heywood
Church Stretton, Shropshire.
SY6 7DS
https://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/

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© Compilation Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog, 2021.

Photos courtesy Mullock's Auctions.

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