Oil painting by Adolf Hitler attacked by man with a screwdriver in Italy
An oil painting by Adolf Hitler that is on display in Italy has been attacked by a man wielding a screwdriver.
The middle-aged man lunged at the portrait but failed to do much damage because the painting was covered in a special patina to protect against such attacks. He was chased away by curators and ran off before officials could apprehend him.
The painting is part of an exhibition on the theme of madness and is on display in the town of Salò, on the shores of Lake Garda in northern Italy.
Salò was the ‘capital’ of Benito Mussolini’s rump Fascist state for the last two years of the war.
The exhibition is entitled Museum of Madness, from Goya to Bacon. “An exhibition of madness would not have been complete without an episode of madness taking place,” said Giordano Bruno Guerri, the museum director.
It is curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, an outspoken and often controversial art critic. “The exhibition is all about madness and this painting is perfect – nothing is as crazy as war,” he said.
When the exhibition opened in March, he defended the decision to display the painting by Hitler. Mr Sgarbi said that from an artistic point of view the untitled oil painting is woefully mediocre but that it offered insights into the Fuhrer’s psyche.
"It's a piece of crap, it's a painting by a desperate man. It could have been done by Kafka. It says a lot about (Hitler’s) psyche. You don't see greatness, but misery.”
The oil painting, which is owned by a private collector in Germany, depicts two men in front of a long corridor. “It is not the work of a dictator but of a wretch. It reveals a profoundly melancholy soul,” Mr Sgarbi said.
In his youth, Hitler had high hopes of becoming a professional artist, but his plans were dashed when he failed to get into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
He maintained his artistic aspirations even after his rise to power as the leader of Nazi Germany. In August 1939, just before the outbreak of war, he reportedly told Nevile Henderson, the British ambassador in Berlin: “I am an artist and not a politician. Once the Polish question is settled, I want to end my life as an artist.”
The exhibition, which ends on November 19, consists of more than 200 paintings, photographs, sculptures and multi-media installations, which explore the relationship between art and insanity.
