Hitler’s $162,000-painting sold to Middle East buyer

A buyer from the Middle East defeated bidders from four continents and was able to purchase a watercolor believed to have been painted by Adolf Hitler, the Associated Press reported.

The painting was sold for 130,000 euros ($162,000) at an auction in Germany on Saturday to an unidentified buyer from the region, Kathrin Weidler, director of the Weider auction house in Nuremberg said.

The work is believed to be one of almost 2,000 paintings by Hitler, the auction house said, adding that it is thought to be from about 1914, when the future dictator was struggling to make a living as an artist before rising to power.

The painting, which had been expected to fetch at least 50,000 euros, was sold by a pair of elderly sisters whose grandfather purchased it in 1916.

Hitler’s paintings surface regularly, but the auction house said the 28-by-22 centimeter scene auctioned Saturday also includes the original bill of sale and a signed letter from Hitler’s adjutant, Albert Bormann, brother of the dictator’s private secretary Martin Bormann.

From the text of the undated Bormann letter, it appears the Nazi-era owner sent a photo of the painting to Hitler’s office asking about its provenance. Bormann wrote that it appears to be “one of the works of the Fuehrer.”