Hitler’s ‘piece of crap’ painting goes on display in Italy

A second-rate oil painting by Adolf Hitler went on show for the first time as part of a “political madness” exhibition at a museum on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy.

The fascist dictator’s work of art is being displayed at the Museum of Salo as part of an exhibition entitled “Museum of Madness.” The painting, which depicts two men, one sitting and one standing, with a background extending into the distance, has been described as “a piece of crap; a painting by a desperate man” by museum curator, art critic, and TV personality, Vittorio Sgarbi, reports the Local.

“You don’t see greatness [in the painting], but misery. It’s not the work of a dictator, but that of a wretch,” he added.

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Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, famously applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, but was twice rejected. He also reportedly told Britain’s Ambassador to Nazi Germany, Neville Henderson, that he was not a politician and wanted to end his life as an artist “once the Polish question is resolved.”

This is the first time that the less than impressive work of art, which has been loaned to the museum by a private German collector, has been on open display. The painting is part of an exhibition on “political madness,” that also features the works of Irish artist Francis Bacon and Spanish romantic artist Francisco Goya.

The exhibition, which comprises around 200 paintings, photos, and sculptures, as well as a variety of multimedia installations, will be on display until November 16 of this year. The town of Salo is a fitting setting for Hitler’s painting due to its close association with Italian fascism.

The small Italian city was the seat of government for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic between 1943 and 1945.