MAINZ, Germany — Paintings and sketches believed to be works of a young Adolf Hitler fetched almost $450,000 at an auction in Germany this weekend.
“Many of the works were sold for more than we expected,” Kathrin Weidler, owner of the Wielder Auction House in Nuremberg, told NBC News.
The watercolors and pencil drawings produced between 1904 and 1922 included a “View over Neuschwanstein Castle,” which sold for just over $113,000, as well as scenes from Vienna and Prague and a female nude.
All of the buyers remained anonymous, but officials said that the works were sold to collectors in Germany, South America, China and the United States.
“Last November, we auctioned off a Hitler painting for nearly $150,000, a very high price because it had the original sales receipt from 1916,” Weidler said. “Since then, we have been offered several Hitler paintings, which we evaluated with experts, but also had to turn some down because we believe they were not authentic.”
In "Mein Kampf," the Nazi leader wrote that he had aspired to be a professional artist but had twice been rejected in by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts after failing the entrance exam.
Believing he had some talent, one of the instructors suggested that he apply to the Academy’s School of Architecture.
But as it meant a return to high school from which he had dropped out, Hitler was unwilling to do so.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he also reportedly told British ambassador Nevile Henderson: "I am an artist and not a politician. Once the Polish question is settled, I want to end my life as an artist."
