Hitler desk could fetch €777,000
The items of furniture from his luxury apartment in Munich are expected to fetch a total of $1 million (about €777,000), said a spokesman for London-based dealer Minas Katchadorian.
The oak pieces, which have not been seen for many years, were acquired by an anonymous American collector after being sold by the US government.
Hitler took delivery of the furniture for his private residence in Prinzregentenplatz in November 1929, at a time when he was being introduced into society and positioned for high political office.
The pieces are being sold privately, and bids are being accepted. Mr Katchadorian said the sale has already attracted interest.
The furniture was commissioned for Hitler by Elsa Bruckmann, one of his most important supporters and the wife of a wealthy Munich publisher, and manufactured by the former Bavarian Court furniture maker, M Ballin.
The rectangular desk has a leather writing surface set into the centre. There is a drawer on each side and each latch bears the Ballin company name.
When Munich fell in early 1945, a US Army regiment occupied the apartment as its command post.
As a result of the building being under US Army control, the apartment remained intact and furnished with Hitler’s possessions.
Other buildings personally associated with Hitler such as Berchtesgaden and the Reich Chancellery were looted and destroyed.
Mr Katchadorian said: “Little is known about how the desk and chair found their way to America, but the US government held a sale of wartime confiscated artefacts during the early 1970s.
“It is possible that this was when the furniture was sold into private hands.
“It may well find itself in a museum or a university collection if it is not bought by another private buyer.”
The vendor is an American in his 70s who lives on the East Coast.
“He’s had two fairly major health scares in the last five years, and he has decided to scale back his collection,” Mr Katchadorian said.
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