[images and captions added by this website] CBC Arts Montreal, Canada, Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Hitler Sketches, cards, net $32,000 at Auction A COLLECTION of sketches and two greeting cards signed by Adolf Hitler sold at a Montreal auction for more than $30,000 Tuesday evening [July 19, 2005] David Irving comments: MOST OF THE SKETCHES appear to my untrained eye to show more of the talent of Albert Speer than of Adolf Hitler. See the professional architect-style lettering across the foot of one (above); and see the lack of any Hitler signature on any of the others.    The bunker design (above) may well be by Hitler's hand; in 1938 he designed several bunkers for the West Wall, lamenting that the army engineers, never having served in one, did not provide for even the most elementary needs of Nature. Perhaps this is why these items have fetched relatively low prices, while Hitler's youthful paintings and sketches fetch well over US$20,000 already, provided their authenticity is above suspicion. Four architectural sketches -- done in charcoal, pencil and watercolour -- were sold for between $6,500 and $7,500 each. One includes the Nazi leader's corrections in red pencil on sketches of the opera house in his hometown of Linz, Austria, designed by his architecture minister Albert Speer. The two cards, which date from New Year's Day 1935 and Christmas 1938, sold for $2,100 and $2,300. Anonymous buyers purchased all six pieces, via telephone bidding, for a total of $32,400. Montreal auctioneer Iégor de Saint Hippolyte has said that the six pieces were owned by a collector who wished to remain anonymous. According to Gilles Duguay, who was present at the evening auction, the room was silent during the bidding. "You couldn't hear a fly," he told the Canadian Press. "Nobody in the crowd raised a hand. No word was spoken." Duguay, an art buyer, added that he didn't believe the items qualify as art and that he hoped the buyers were not Canadians. "The beauty of all this is they are probably buyers from outside of Canada who will take all this garbage [Entartete Kunst?] with them and we will be rid of it," he said. "That might be the only positive thing about this." The auction house had barred reporters from entering the auction room, unless they were willing to bid on the items. Also, just before the Hitler pieces were brought out, curtains were drawn and the auction house's front door was shut. Officials said the measures were to protect the confidentiality of the bidders. The Canadian Jewish Congress and other groups have expressed their disapproval of the auction. Representatives had called for the items to be donated to a museum or other similar institution for scholarly study. Copyright (C) 2005 CBC.   Jewish Congress objects to auction of Hitler sketches