TREASURED items belonging to Adolf Hitler have gone on display at an auction house in Nuremberg – including his favourite swastika armchair.
The eerie collection features various artworks thought to be by the Nazi brute, who struggled to make a living as a painter before rising to power ahead of World War Two.
However, experts say the sale’s highlights are the wicker chair from Hitler and lover Eva Braun’s holiday home Haus Wachenfeld and a rare Meissen vase with an illustration of the Gorch Fock ship.
The ornate vase – which also has a swastika on the side – was confiscated from the despot’s private rooms in the Reich Chancellery after his suicide in 1945.
Auktionshaus Weidler says the chair has an estimate of around £6,000 and the chinaware around £5,000 ahead of the sale on February 9.
However, the big price tag items are expected to be the paintings which are signed ‘A. Hitler’ and ‘Adolf Hitler’ and have come from private collections in Europe.
The artworks – which range in estimate from just £500 to £40,000– include nudes, portraits, still life, architectural studies and Austrian landscapes.
All the paintings are said to date between 1907 and 1936 and some believe they will shatter their estimates.
In 2015, Bavaria-based Weidler sold a watercolour of Neuschwanstein Castle also signed ‘A. Hitler’ for more than £90,000.
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In Germany, it is legal to buy, sell and own Nazi memorabilia, as long as they are deemed “works of art” or used for “educational, art and science and research reasons”.
Last week, three watercolour paintings attributed to the former Nazi leader were seized by German police.
The works were up for sale at the Kloss auction house in Berlin, but taken on suspicions of forgery, police say.
