Cranach Masterpiece in Hitler's Apartment Revealed in New Photo

A newly published early 1940s photograph shows Lucas Cranach the Elder's "Cupid complaining to Venus" (1526-27) hanging in Adolf Hitler's private Munich apartment at 16 Prinzregentenplatz. The image, first reproduced in a 1978 Hermann Historica auction catalogue, was spotted by provenance expert Birgit Schwarz. The National Gallery in London purchased the painting in 1963 from E. and A. Silberman Galleries, who provided a false provenance. The dealer claimed the work had sold at auction in 1909 and passed through inheritance, but it was actually acquired by Patricia Lochridge, an American journalist who was appointed mayor of Berchtesgaden for a day in 1945 by U.S. forces. She selected the Cranach from a storehouse of recovered art and smuggled it to the United States. Hitler likely acquired the painting around 1935, possibly through a forced sale or seizure from a Jewish collector. The National Gallery has been transparent about the provenance gap since 1999 and welcomes further information. The photograph also appears in Schwarz's book on Hitler's art collection, published in Kunstchronik in December 2023.