Last August, while scavenging through a garage sale in Birkirkara, an art collector stumbled upon a box with three paintings and some silver items.

Two of the paintings depicted noble stags in a forest. One shows a stag standing tall in front of a sunset, while the other depicts the animal crossing a river stream.

Without thinking twice, the enthusiastic art collector bagged the items for €20.

Back at home, he realised the paintings were dirty, and one had a minor rip on the canvas, so he sent them to a restorer for cleaning and repair.

It was during the restoration of the 24 by 10-inch paintings that the artist’s signature was revealed.

The initials ‘A.H’ and the date ‘1905’ prompted the collector and restorers to suspect that the signature could belong to one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler.

Before he ascended to power as the leader of Nazi Germany, Hitler was a struggling artist.

At the age of 18, he moved to Vienna and applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts but was rejected twice. He made a living there by selling his

watercolours of landmarks in the city, which he copied from postcards.

In his book Mein Kampf, he claimed to have produced as many as three paintings a day between 1908 and 1913,

It is reported that he produced hundreds of works, with his paintings mainly depicting architecture, landscapes and nature.

There is now a market for paintings by one of the most hated figures in history, with a collection of 14 artworks sold in 2015 for nearly $450,000 (€441,770). Many of his works are held by the US Army, after being confiscated at the end of World War II.

Throughout the years, art circles and auction houses have come across hundreds of fake and forged paintings attributed to the former Nazi leader.

So, are these paintings really by Hitler?

‘100% fake’

A Dutch investigative journalist and expert on alleged Hitler artwork, Bart F.M. Droog, claims both works are forgeries.

“In my opinion, these works are fakes, there’s nothing at all that even suggests they are authentic,” Droog told Times of Malta after examining pictures of the artworks.

He said Hitler made no oil paintings and that the earliest watercolour by Hitler dates from 1906.

“These works are dated ‘1905’, Hitler would have been 15 or 16 years old then. At that age, he only made rather crude drawings.”

He added that Postlingberg is the only known, as well as a surviving Hitler ‘watercolour’ from before 1910.

Apart from the style, Droog said Hitler only signed his works with “A. Hitler”, and only ‘painted’ cityscapes and buildings. 

He added how later on, two art swindlers composed a book depicting all of Adolf Hitler’s art pieces.

“It’s allegedly a catalogue raisonné of Hitler’s work, but in reality, it’s a catalogue of forgeries, with some authentic ones. In it, a number of stag paintings are depicted: 100 per cent fake,” he said.

“These probably have inspired the forger of the works bought by the Maltese [buyer].”

He said it is possible that the two works might not have been made as forgeries, and that it is possible they are painted by an unknown artist who also goes by the initials ‘A.H’.

“Each year, more than 100 alleged Hitler watercolours and oil paintings are auctioned worldwide. As Hitler probably made no more than about 150 ‘watercolours’ of which no more than about 50 were described by the main archive of the German Nazi party, this alone tells us that almost all Hitlers on auction are as fraudulent as Hitler himself.”

‘Hard to verify’

The art collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, disagrees with Droog, stating that Hitler did paint in oils, and painted stags and also dogs.

“One of his oil paintings is located in an Italian museum and was attacked by a man with a screwdriver in recent years,” he said.

He said the experienced restorer noted there was no “foul play” with either the signature or the painting. The restorer said both were painted around 117 years ago and that the canvas was woven in the early 1900s.

“Even the nails that hold the stretcher are of the same era,” the collector said.

There are very few ways to go about identifying elements that are unique to Hitler’s style since for the most part, he copied works he saw on postcards

He said he has conducted his own research and reached out to other experts and correspondences over the originality of the paintings.

“We have had people inform us that it is hard to verify because his style is that of a ‘moderately ambitious amateur’,” he said.

“Therefore, his pictures do not stand out among hundreds of thousands of similar works from this period. There are very few ways to go about identifying elements that are unique to Hitler’s style since for the most part, he copied works he saw on postcards.”

The collector said he also managed to find a stamp on the back of both canvases, which shows they were used by Hitler’s art academy teacher, Josef Albers.

He said he is comparing Hitler’s signatures signed on documents and paintings and reached out to other auction houses which display Hitler’s artworks, but all state it is difficult to prove or disapprove whether the Nazi leader was behind the work.

“Needless to say, our research is still ongoing to determine who is behind our A.H. paintings, and we welcome any expert opinion.”

When asked if he will be auctioning the artworks, he said it would be best to keep them for now until they detect who is behind the paintings.

He said that according to a local auctioneer, the works have a price tag of €250-€500, maintaining that Hitler’s paintings had no real intrinsic artistic value, but the high asking prices come down to the infamous name in the corner of the painting.