Last weekend, the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg sold a group of 14 paintings, watercolors, and drawings. The paintings depicted vases of flowers and scenes of German castles and Munich courtyards. Experts admitted the art wasn't particularly special, reports The Washington Post, and yet the pieces sold for an impressive $450,000. The artist: Adolf Hitler.
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Before Hitler headed down the path to war and genocide, he had dreams of becoming an artist. While he applied to the Vienna Academy of Art, he was rejected and instead expressed his artistic inclinations by selling paintings that he copied from postcards. Now, art buyers from around the world are purchasing his work. Buyers of the 14 pieces of art were from places as wide-ranging as Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, and China, reports Artnet News.
The auction house says that the buyers did not necessarily purchase the artwork because of the artist, but because of "a general interest in high-value art." But still, the sale has stirred conversations about auction house ethics and whether or not Hitler's art ought to be up for sale. It's not illegal to sell the Nazi leader's paintings in Germany — so long as the paintings don't contain any Nazi symbols.
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