Original Hitlers

In his old days as a house painter, Adolf Hitler had an amateur's passion for water colors and oils. As a youth he peddled his postcardlike views of Vienna, Munich and romantic ruins from door to door, sold some for roughly a dollar a daub.

Hitler's paintings accomplished some chance good: Jewish dealers and collectors who had bought from the youth sold their choices at steep prices when Hitler rose to power, and used the proceeds to flee his hand. In his might, Dictator Hitler grew bashful about his art: he seized all the examples he could find, destroyed most of them. A few he presented to such cronies as Goering and Mussolini.

The paintings were timid and incompetent, though sometimes rather pretty. Their souvenir value rose and fell with Hitler's own fortunes. Now that the artist has passed into history, the hunt is on again for signed, original Hitlers. He himself remembered having painted 300 pictures, but got back only 50 of them. Last week German dealers were scrabbling for the 250 paintings that may theoretically remain. Mainly to spur search, some of them were encouraging the rumor that a first-class Hitler might bring as much as $20,000.

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