NPR has the AP’s version of the discovery of 16 works of art once owned by Adolph Hitler:
A five-year search by a Czech author has discovered that 16 paintings in the Czech Republic were once owned by Adolf Hitler.
The art works, which Hitler bought in Germany during World War II, had been moved to Czechoslovakia after it was occupied by the Nazis to prevent them being damaged by Allied attacks.
On Monday, author Jiri Kuchar put seven of the paintings on display for reporters at the convent in Doksany in northern Czech Republic where he had identified them. Today, he said, they are probably worth about 50 million koruna ($2.7 million).
“Nobody believed me it could be true,” Kuchar said of his findings. The author, who calls himself “an amateur and enthusiast,” has written about his findings.
Kuchar said Hitler bought the 16 paintings — by German artists such as Franz Eichhorst, Paul Herrmann, Sepp Hilz, Friedrich W. Kalb, Oscar Oestreicher, Edmund Steppes and Armin Reumann — in 1942 and 1943 at the Great German art exhibitions that were held annually in Munich from 1937 to 1944.
