Art Collector Buys Hitler 'Banksy' for £400,000

HITLER HOAX: Sir Fergus 'furious' with schoolgirl.

Sir Fergus Glass, one of the UK's wealthiest art collectors, has opened up on his 'humiliation' after spending £400,000 on fake Hitler artworks he believed inspired Banksy.

Hitler, an unpromising artist in his time before becoming leader of the Third Reich, has left a body of work which morbid collectors have coveted since the great dictator's death. However, it was the similarities to street artist 'Banksy' (real name Clive Barlow) which caught Sir Fergus's eye.

'I was stunned when my daughter showed me these images on Instagram,' said Sir Fergus, who made his fortune in property lettings. 'These works by Adolf Hitler were clearly the inspiration for Banksy. I simply had to have them on my wall!'

The watercolours were actually produced by A-level art student Alyssia Cardew. Intended as a joke on Instagram for her art school friends, her post soon went viral. Before long, Cardew was bombarded with interest from the art world and Nazi history enthusiasts alike, among them Sir Fergus.

'He turned up with his assistant unannounced to my house asking mum and dad if he could view the paintings. I gave him a tour of the garage where my dad had made me a little art studio, and he was mesmerised,' said the seventeen-year-old from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

'When he asked how much for the collection, I just pulled a crazy figure out of thin air thinking he was in on the joke. I told him £400,000 and he actually got his chequebook out and paid it!'

Sir Fergus then arranged for the paintings to be collected the next day. Upon having his insurers inspect the paintings, Sir Fergus flew into a fury after being told they were fakes, and poor ones at that. A legal wrangle ensued, but Sir Fergus was not able to claw any of the money back.

When contacted by BAZAKE Media for comment, Sir Fergus said he was ‘crestfallen’ after learning the paintings were not genuine. ‘I thought I had made a discovery that could have placed Hitler at the forefront of the burgeoning street art movement before his wicked politics took him to the top of the German state.