Fake Hitler Watercolors Probably Won't Be Used to Pay Off Former Swedish Hell's Angel Tax Debt

There are a variety of reasons that we don’t need to get into — AT ALL — why someone would want to own original watercolors by Adolph Hitler. (An unrelated story about how ridiculous art can be: When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, people still lined up at the Louvre just to see where the painting had been. For serious. Also, people spend, on average, only 15 seconds looking at the painting. It’s one of those things one wants to have seen rather than see.)

Sweden’s official government debt collection agency, Kronofogden, had hopes of selling off some Hitler watercolors on behalf of Thomas Möller, the former head of the Swedish branch of the Hell’s Angels (and not to be confused with the German-born Thomas Moller without the umulat, who is a painter, and seriously? Sweden has a branch of the Hell’s Angels?). Turns out that Möller owes some back taxes to the Swedish government, and Möller thought he had some real live Hitler watercolors that could pull in a tidy profit — something along the lines of $100,000 U.S., or $15,000 for each of the seven paintings.

Only, as it turns out, they weren’t real Hitler watercolors, but fake Hitler watercolors, and those don’t bring in the same dollar value.

“We hired a man who I think knows what he’s talking about and the answer we got was that the reproductions are worth a total of [$88.00 U.S.],” said prosecutor Jörgen Larsson.

There was considerable outrage over the idea of selling Hitler watercolors to pay off a debt. Kronofogden said in a statement that it had no view on how it collects money to settle debts.