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Agence France-Presse

Five paintings attributed to Adolf Hitler will be auctioned on Saturday in the German city of Nuremberg, proving the Nazi memorabilia market is alive and well.
Nuremberg’s mayor Ulrich Maly condemned the sale as being “in bad taste”, speaking to Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Among the items to go under the hammer are a mountain lake view with a starting price of €45,000 (US$51,000) and a wicker armchair with a swastika symbol presumed to have belonged to the late leader of Germany.
The Weidler auction house is holding the “special sale” in the same city where Nazi war criminals were tried in 1945.
The auction made headlines days before its start after several artworks were withdrawn on Thursday on suspicion they were fakes and prosecutors stepped in.
Sales of alleged artworks by Hitler – who for a time tried to make a living as an artist in his native Austria – are controversial, as collectors are willing to pay high prices for art linked to the country’s Nazi past.
Bottom line: is it immoral to sell Adolf Hitler’s underpants or other Nazi memorabilia?
“There’s a long tradition of this trade in devotional objects linked to Nazism,” said Stephan Klingen of the Central Institute for Art History in Munich.
“Every time there’s a media buzz about it … and the prices they’re bringing in have been rising constantly.”
In Germany, public displays of Nazi symbols are illegal but exceptions can be made, in educational or historic contexts for instance.
To comply with the law, the auction house pixelated the swastikas on the wicker chair and a blue-and-white Meissen porcelain vase in catalogue photos, and has covered them up on its website.

But none of the paintings include any of the former ruling party’s insignias.
According to Klingen, Hitler had the style of “a moderately ambitious amateur” but his creations did not stand out from “hundreds of thousands” of comparable works from the period – making their authenticity especially hard to verify.
A total of 26 pieces originally featured in the catalogue have been removed from sale after suspicions were raised that they might be fakes.
The watercolours, drawings and paintings bearing “Hitler” signatures featured views of Vienna or Nuremberg, female nudes and still lifes, the auction house said. They were offered by 23 different owners.
British neo-Nazis who named son after Hitler guilty of terror offence
Prosecutors on Wednesday collected 63 artworks from the Weidler premises bearing the signature “A.H.” or “A. Hitler”, including some not slated to go under the hammer.
The Nuremberg-Fuerth prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation against unknown perpetrators “on suspicion of falsifying documents and attempted fraud”, said chief prosecutor Antje Gabriels-Gorsolke.
“If they turn out to be fakes, we will then try to determine who knew what in the chain of ownership,” she said.
Weidler said in a statement that the paintings’ withdrawal from sale “does not automatically mean they are fakes”.


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Hitler paintings and Nazi memorabilia go under the hammer at ‘special sale’ in Germany

The watercolour titled Ortschaft an Vorgebirgssee’ signed ‘A. Hitler’ on display at the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg. Photo: AFP

A picture taken on February 8, 2019 at the Weidler auction house in the southern German city of Nuremberg shows a wicker armchair, bearing a swastika, a vase and watercolours which are presumed to have belonged to late Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. - A German auction house scrapped the planned sale of 26 artworks attributed to Adolf Hitler, after doubts emerged about their authenticity just days before they were due to go under the hammer. Five paintings signed "A. Hitler", all of them watercolours, will be auctioned off on February 9, 2019 as scheduled, according to the Weidler auction house. (Photo by DANIEL KARMANN / AFP)

A picture taken on February 8, 2019 at the Weidler auction house in the southern German city of Nuremberg shows a wicker armchair, bearing a swastika, and a vase which are presumed to have belonged to late Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. - A German auction house scrapped the planned sale of 26 artworks attributed to Adolf Hitler, after doubts emerged about their authenticity just days before they were due to go under the hammer. Five paintings signed "A. Hitler", all of them watercolours, will be auctioned off on February 9, 2019 as scheduled, according to the Weidler auction house. (Photo by DANIEL KARMANN / AFP)

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A rear view of Hitler's “Super Mercedes” parade car. Photo: Worldwide Auctioneers

A 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen built for and used by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Photo: Worldwide Auctioneers

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on April 11, 2017 where he claimed German leader Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons, sparking an outcry from Jewish organisations about the gas chambers used by HItler to kill Jews during World War Two. Photo: Reuters

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The auction house is holding the event in Nuremburg, the same city where German war criminals were tried in 1945


The auction house is holding the event in Nuremburg, the same city where German war criminals were tried in 1945.


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