Would You Buy One of Hitler’s Terrible Flower Paintings for $30,000?

Adolf Hitler Vase Mit Blumen (1912) Photo: Nate D. Sanders Fine Autographs and Memorabilia

A 1912 watercolor painting by Adolf Hitler is about to hit the auction block, the Telegraph reports. The painting is being sold by Nate D. Sanders, a Los Angeles-based auction house specializing in memorabilia.

The painting, a still life depicting a bouquet of orange, red, and pink flowers in a pitcher has a starting price of $30,000.

The artwork features a stamp from Hitler’s dealer Samuel Morgenstein on the back.

According to the auction house’s website, “Morgenstern owned an art gallery in Vienna and sold many works by Hitler beginning in 1911; ironically, this Jewish gallery owner was one of the few individuals to see talent in Hitler’s work and paid him well for his paintings. His gallery was later seized when Hitler came to power.” Morgenstern was eventually deported to the Lodz Ghetto, where he died in 1943.

Hitler moved from the small town of Linz, Austria, to the capital Vienna in 1908 as an impoverished 18-year-old, determined to make it as an artist. He was rejected by the Vienna Academy of Art twice.

“The work is of no intrinsic, artistic worth whatsoever,” commented The Telegraph‘s art critic Alastair Smart of the piece. “The only vague point of interest might be that, unlike the iffy watercolors of Vienna city we associate with Hitler the painter, this rarity is an iffy watercolor of a pitcher of azalias.”

Previous sales of artworks by the notorious Nazi dictator have been associated with intense controversy (see Hitler Watercolor to Be Sold at Weidler and Middle East Collector Buys Hitler Painting for $162,000).

The auction is scheduled for March 26. Interested bidders can participate online.

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