Hitler watercolours sell for €32k

A pair of watercolours signed by Adolf Hitler and depicting farm scenes fetched a combined total of €32,000 at an auction in Germany today, an auction house official said.

Kathrin Weidler, a manager at the Weidler Auction House in Nuremberg, declined to identify the new owner of the two paintings – Farmstead, which went for €18,000, and Farm Buildings on the River, which sold for €14,000.

The minimum bidding price for each painting was €3,500.

The two watercolours, listed in the catalogue as “signed and dated 1914,” did not show evidence of a “good painting style,” Ms Weidler said.

Still, they attracted a few bidders at the auction house and seven telephone bidders, some from abroad, in an auction that lasted only a few minutes.

The paintings found their way to Russia after World War II and were sold at auction on behalf of a Polish owner who lives in Nuremberg, Ms Weidler said. She would not say whether the new owner, who bid by telephone, was from Germany or abroad.

As a young man, Hitler sought to earn his living as an artist. He is believed to have painted hundreds of works, several of which have come up for sale over the years.

Weidler Auction House owner Herbert Weidler has said he sold one four years ago for €11,000.