In a true sign of the times, the art world’s current downturn has been bucked by a dead artist unlike any other before or after him—namely, ADOLF HITLER. In a move straight from the WTF?!? Files, the murderous dead German dictator has made a significant posthumous move in the art world by managing to earn nearly $12,000 USD last week when 15 of his original watercolors—including the self-portrait from 1910 seen here—were put up for auction at MULLOCK’S:

HITLER’S ART ATTRACTS BIG SALE PRICES
Source: CNN

LONDON, England—A painting by Adolf Hitler sold for almost $15,000 Thursday–more than six times as much as expected.

The watercolor was one of 15 items of Hitler art being sold at auction. Together, the artworks by the Nazi leader fetched almost $120,000.

They had expected to raise just under $50,000, auction house Mullock’s of Shropshire estimated.

Many of the pictures were on the market because one of the sellers wanted money to install a new central heating system in his house, a spokesman for the auction house said.

“The watercolors came from a collector who is a regular vendor of ours,” said Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at Mullock’s. “He’d forgotten about them for years. He found them in his garage.”

He refused to disclose the identity of the seller, as a matter of policy.

Thirteen watercolors were expected to fetch $580 to $2,200 apiece, while the lone small oil painting was estimated at up to $30,000, the auctioneer estimates.

All of the watercolors shattered expectations — 12 of them selling for between $4,400 and $9,000.

The remaining watercolor — a 1910 painting showing a figure sitting on a stone bridge — fetched almost $15,000. There has been speculation that the figure was a depiction of Hitler himself.

The oil painting sold at only almost $20,000. A pencil sketch signed “A Hitler 1914″ went for almost $4,700, beating the auctioneer’s estimate of up to $3,700.

An easel thought to have belonged to Hitler sold for nearly $15,000, having been expected to bring $2,900 to $5,800. An anonymous bidder purchased it by phone.

Hitler dreamed of being an artist as a young man, and although he failed to get into the Vienna Academy of Arts, he supported himself by painting watercolors for several years before World War I, according the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The auction also includes dozens of items related to Hitler’s time as leader of Nazi Germany — including documents from concentration camps where those deemed “undesirable” by the Nazis were imprisoned, sterilized and murdered. Approximately 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi death camps, alongside millions of political prisoners, homosexuals, Gypsies and others. Click HERE to continue reading…

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