Hitlertavlor under the hammer raises anger

Among the items that are called out by the auction house Weidler on Saturday are a landscape painting hung with bergsmotiv with a starting price of equivalent to 470.000 dollars.

other objects with alleged ties to Hitler offered. Among them, a hakkorsprydd wicker chair said to have belonged to the dictator.

the uproar in Germany. Just Nuremberg was the scene of both the nazi giant party conferences in the 1930s and the trials of war criminals after the war. The mayor of the city Ulrlich Maly condemns the auction as tasteless in an interview in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

It is difficult to prove that the paintings have been painted by Hitler. Photo: Gregor Fischer

to pay large sums of Hitler's paintings and other items from Germany's dark past tend to arouse anger in the country.

– There is a long tradition of trading with the subject linked to nazism. And the media is reporting, the prices may increase constantly. It annoys me personally, " says Stephan Klingen of the German institute for art history in Munich.

According to the Klingen is in addition, the authenticity difficult to prove. Hitler's style is difficult to distinguish from the hundreds of thousands of similar works of other amateur artists from the same period.

surrounded by suspicions of forgery. In the week allowed prosecutors to seize 63 works of art with the signatures ”A. H” or ”A. Hitler” from the auction house. A number of people are being investigated now for fraud for that they are suspected to have forged documents.

Before the weekend's auction picked Weidler also removed 26 items that are claimed to have Hitler as the author, after suspicions about the forgeries. According to the auction house relating to the watercolors, drawings and paintings, as well city scenes as nudes and still lifes.