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July 26, 2022 -
Droog Magazine periodical for investigative
journalism Introduction | Is the watch authentic? | Hitler watercolor? | Hitler sketch? | Comment by auctioneer Auction policies | Address auction house | Dutch version
The American auction house Alexander Historical Auctions, notorious for selling fake Hitler items, has made the world's headlines again. This time with a watch attributed to Hitler, with an expected hammer price of 2 to 4 million US dollars, to be auctioned on July 28, 2022. In the past this auction house, run by Bill
Panagopulos, sold many fake Hitler objects, such as
as a telephone
(in 2017, for $243,000), underpants (also in 2017, for
$6,700), a strange photo and flower collage
(in 2018, for $11,250) and a toilet seat. Caveat emptor! Is the watch authentic? But originates that watch (lot 9) really from Adolf
Hitler? The object is a gold Reverso watch,
supposedly made by the German watchmaker Andreas
Huber, with a movement produced by the Swiss watch
manufacturer LeCoultre, and a case made by yet
another company. The dial is said to have come from
Huber. The back features lacquer-filled engravings
of a German eagle, a swastika with an oak leaf
wreath, the initials "AH", and a series of dates,
"20.4.89-30.1.33-5.3.33" - the first being Hitler's
birthday , the second Hitler's appointment as Reich
Chancellor, the third day of the national elections
in Germany, 1933.
Reverso watches have a reversible case, which means that you can turn them around without detaching the bracelet, so that the – at the time very fragile – glass front is protected and the back is worn in plain sight. But this aside. Daily Mail Bill Panagopulos, the owner of the auction
house, told the UK newspaper Daily Mail (a newspaper
with a lust for publishing sensational Hitler news): It was given to him most likely by the Nazi party itself in recognition of his achievement and in thanks for elevating the party to power. It is absolutely unique! There has never been another Hitler watch ever offered at auction, and our example has absolutely solid provenance. There are
plenty of Hitler relics out there and we have sold
hundreds of pieces of his tableware, clothing,
furniture, and so on. But a watch is more personal
than almost anything else.” In a document accompanying lot 9
and published by the auctioneer you can read about
this watch (on page 9): Oh? That's quite a different story. And it gets even weirder:
"But it is certain that the movement
originated from LeCoultre, and it was assembled by
Huber together with parts originating from other
Swiss manufacturers as well." A. Huber as customer unknown Yes, Geoffrey Lefebvre and Stéphane Belmont
of Jaeger-LeCoultre, as LeCoultre
is called since 1937, informed the owner in 2017
that the movement in the case was manufactured in
December 1932, but also: In that same report: “Given the disparity of the components,
the absence of a brand name and the impossibility
of tracing the history of this watch on the basis
of archival documents, we are not in a position to
issue an authentication document for this watch .” "The examination of the engraving does not allow us to bring out any new elements. We remind you that it was in any case not made within the Manufacture since at that time the LeCoultre establishments did not have an engraving workshop. It is not possible for us to date this engraving.”
Captured at the Berghof, 1945? And what about the provenance? According to the auction house, the French sergeant Robert Mignon captured it on 4 May 1945 from the Berghof, Hitler's residence on the Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden. It is possible that this sergeant was at the Berghof on the date mentioned. But there is no evidence that he found this watch there. There are strong indications that he would not have found such a watch there: the people who worked on the Obersalzberg as Hitler's personnel looted the buildings before fleeing just before the arrival of the Americans and French there. It may be assumed that they did not overlook gold objects. And then there's this newspaper clipping, from 1947: "MUNICH (AP). — The sale of souvenir articles which operators claim once were possessions of Adolf Hitler has started in Munich, where the Fuhrer got his start. On the German blackmarket now one can find "ashtrays used personally by the Fuhrer" and wrist watches worn by him. At least 24 of these ashtrays, plus nine watches, were offered recently for prices ranging up to a thousand marks. Americans buy them without stopping to think that Hitler never smoked and did not care much for wrist watches." (“Souvenirs” of Hitler. Daily Mercury. Mackay (Queensland, Australia), 07/09/1947). Entrez the daughter According to the daughter, or rather someone who claims to be the sergeant's daughter in a letter dated August 18, 2005, Mignon gave the watch to a Mr. Jacques ... sold, on the condition that it may only be resold to someone who is not a political fanatic or member of some Nazi organization. This condition seems only intended to give more credibility to the authenticity of this clock – because anyone, regardless of his or her political views, can purchase it at a public auction. It should be clear that, in the absence of
any proof of authenticity, only complete
fools will bid on this object. Somebody has already
done so: according to Bill Panagopulos, a bid of 1
million dollars has already been made. But even this
can be questioned. He or a front man could have made
an offer himself, to drive up the price, and pimp up
the semblance of credibility. More questionable material on this auction The highly dubious watch is not the only object on this auction that raises eyebrows. Lot 3 is an watercolor touted as “Adolf Hitler watercolor painting
of the Eagle's nest". Expected hammer price 20
to 30,000 dollars, with four bids already been made.
Christa Schroeder
Hitler did not make a single “painting” after 1917 (and even the works attributed to him from 1915-1917 are highly questionable). Hitler's secretary Christa Schroeder, who hardly left his side in 1933-1945, was very positive in her memoirs, published in 1985. On page 162: "I was with a former friend of Hitler, Ada Klein. She was also a guest in his flat in Thierschstraße in the 1920s and knows from these visits that Hitler never painted again. This lady also agrees with me that he never painted flowers, only architectural and landscape sketches. Someone is trying to deceive in an impudent way.” To top of page. Entrez Konrad Kujau The “someone” Schroeder talked about was
none other than Konrad Kujau, who launched -
next to the infamous Hitler diaries - numerous fake
Hitler flower still lifes, other paintings, drawings
and poems onto the market. But Kujau was not the
only Hitler forger – there have been many and many
are still active. Back to 2022, Alexander Historical
Auctions:
"A penciled, stylized 'A H' appears beside the number, placed there either by Hitler or another party identifying the piece. The initials are not typical of Hitler's artist's signature, but of course at the time of this painting, he had not undertaken and signed any paintings of any quantity for over twenty years.” All authentic Hitlers are signed with “A. Hitler.” "The style, media used, and stilted perspective seen here are all hallmarks of legitimate pieces of Hitler's artwork” Complete nonsense. Hitler copied illustrations of buildings in 1907 and 1910-1914, using postcards and photos as originals, and colored the copies in with watercolors. This work resembles in almost nothing (except for the watercolor) authentic Hitler works. To top of page. Hitler the furniture designer?
Nonsense, he had this done by his interior designer Gerdy Troost.
"This same painting (as well as two others in the series) appears on the in-depth reference site: kehlsteinhaus.com where it is attributed to Hitler"
Yes and no. On this page of the said site
you can see a photo of a work that could be the
same as the work to be auctioned, but it is NOT
attributed to Hitler there:
Alexander Historical Auctions: “as well as on the travel website: uncommon-travel-germany.com with the same attribution.”
That's about a small photo on this page, with the text “Hitler's watercolor of Eagle's Nest thumbnail. But is that proof? No, that site is a commercial travel site, not to be taken seriously as “proof”.
"In print, a similar painting from the same series appears in the photographic guide 'History of the Eagle's Nest' by Florian Beierl. It too is attributed to Hitler."
Now Florian M. Beierl is certainly an expert. He published a series of books about Hitler and the Obersalzberg between 1994 and 2015. But he is by no means an expert on Hitler's artwork. When my colleague Jaap van den Born and I went to investigate the works of art attributed to Hitler (poems, oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and sketches) in 2016, one of the first things we noticed was that hardly anyone ever seriously studied the alleged “Hitlers”. Nearly all books and studies on the subject are partly or largely based on lies by con artists such as Reinhold Hanisch, Renato Atillio Bleibtreu, August Kubizek, “dr.” Johannes von Müllern-Schönhausen, Konrad Kujau, Peter Jahn and August Priesack. The only reliable studies were made by Anton Joachimsthaler and Frederic Spotts – but they only studied a part of the alleged artworks. Alexander Historical Auctions: "A significant Hitler artwork, and possibly one of the last paintings he would ever create.” Whoever made this watercolor, his or her
name was certainly not Adolf Hitler.
Hitler sketch presented by Albert Speer The same applies to the creator of lot 4,
“Adolf Hitler's sketch of his
Munich Opera House”. According to the
American auctioneer, it is a real Hitler sketch
from the Albert Speer collection. But is that so?
Jaap van den Born, who in recent years has
extensively studied Speer sketches and sketches
attributed to Hitler by Speer: So if you want to buy a real Albert Speer
sketch, you might want to consider making an offer
on this work. Were it not for the fact that after
his release, in the night of September 30 to
October 1, 1966, Speer sold his own old sketches
as being Hitlers on a massive scale. So these
Speer "Hitlers" have no great value. All the more
so because Speer did possess a collection of
genuine Hitler sketches – but he didn't sell
those. Is this trade legal? In the US, this kind of trade, which borders on pure fraud, can be done legally. The auctioneers are cunning enough to put “in my opinion” somewhere with small print, or phrases like “we are not responsible for the accuracy of the texts on our sites” and “all at the buyer's own risk”.
Collectors of "normal" German militaria from the Nazi period, are usually white men with a fascination for history and the Third Reich in particular. From all political affiliations, from the most diverse backgrounds and professions. The buyers of the objects attributed to Hitler and described above are of a different kind than the average militaria collector: they are a. filthy rich and b. seized by the urge (for whatever reason) to possess something of Hitler's, which makes them blind to the obvious deception. The trade in such objects can best be
compared with the medieval trade in relics. Even
then bones and objects attributed to all kinds of
saints were sold for big money, while anyone with
any thinking capacity could realize that it was
impossible that Saint This or That had been
endowed by Our Dear Lord with twenty-five
thighbones, five hundred and thirty phalanges or
thirteen skulls. The findings presented here were previously published in abridged form on the private forum of Wehrmacht-Awards.com, a site for those interested in militaria. Bill Panagopulos, the owner of Alexander Historical Auctions reacted as follows: “We will not tolerate libel on any website and will take firm and swift legal action against those posting such comments. We don’t do this out of spite - just to protect our business and reputation, as well as that of other legitimate sellers. You cannot label material as “fake” based on a hunch or opinion without there eventually being conse-quences. Choose your words carefully.” To top of page.
"This auction is conducted under the laws of the State of Maryland.
Photo collage Bart FM Droogs, compiled from photos courtesy Alexander Historical Auctions. |
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