Famous Cranach painting spotted in rare photograph of Hitler's apartment

"A National Gallery masterpiece by Lucas Cranach the Elder once hung in Adolf Hitler's private apartment in Munich. We are reproducing an early 1940s photograph revealing that the Führer placed Cupid complaining to Venus (1526-27) in his sitting room. This is the first time that the photograph has appeared in an English-language publication."

"In 1963, the National Gallery bought the Cranach painting in good faith from E. and A. Silberman Galleries in New York. According to the National Gallery's recently retired curator Susan Foister, the dealer had provided "a false provenance"."

"Abris Silberman, the dealer's co-founder, had written to the National Gallery that the Cranach had sold at auction in 1909 and then "through inheritance the painting became the possession of the party from whom we obtained this picture". This was untrue. Silberman had bought the painting from an American former war correspondent who had acquired it in the most bizarre circumstances."

"In 1945 Patricia Lochridge, then a 29-year-old journalist writing from Germany for the magazine Woman's Home Companion, was invited to participate in what was effectively a stunt. For one day in late May or early June, the commander of American forces in Germany's Berchtesgaden area appointed her burgermeister (mayor). Berchtesgaden, very close to the Austrian border, was where Hitler had established his Alpine redoubt."

A Lucas Cranach the Elder painting, Cupid complaining to Venus (1526–27), was placed in Adolf Hitler’s private sitting room in Munich. An early 1940s photograph shows the work in that setting and is newly appearing in English-language publication. In 1963 the National Gallery acquired the painting in good faith from E. and A. Silberman Galleries in New York, based on provenance information later described as false. The Silberman co-founder claimed the painting had been bought at auction in 1909 and then passed by inheritance, but the claim was untrue. The painting had been obtained through unusual circumstances involving an American former war correspondent. In 1945 Patricia Lochridge, a journalist in Germany, was appointed mayor for a day in Berchtesgaden and was told she could select a recovered artwork to take home, after which the painting was smuggled into the United States.

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