February 16, 2010
Mullock’s Specialist Auctioneers have an interesting specimen for sale: a watercolor painting of a pastoral church, with two intriguing names on it.
On the back, implying the one-time owner: “Sigmund Freud, Vienna.”
Signed on the front, implying the painter: “A. Hitler, 1910.”
Both were in the Austro-Hungarian capital at the same time, which means they may have known each other.
The artifact will start at 10,000 British pounds. But still: a painting by Hitler owned by Freud? In several senses of the word, that’s priceless.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.