Argentina's largest ever trove of Third Reich artifacts is found

[Syt]

derspiess will want to avoid traveling to Argentina in the near future till this has blown over.

(Yes, Daily Wail, they seemed tot have the most pictures)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4620296/Largest-hidden-trove-Nazi-artifacts-Argentina.html

Nazi medical equipment, knives covered in Swastikas and busts of Hitler: Argentina's largest ever trove of Third Reich artifacts is found hidden inside a house's secret room

In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history.

A total of 75 of objects of Nazi paraphernalia were found at a collector's home in the town of Beccar, a suburb of Buenos Aires, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

The device used to measure head size was part of the logic of identifying those not of the Aryan race. Agent raiding the collectors home noticed a large bookshelf and found behind it a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.


Authorities say they suspect the items are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

'Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,' Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said Monday. Some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. 'This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.'

Among the disturbing collection were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

'We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass' that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police. 'We are reaching out to international experts to deepen' the investigation.

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.
Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8.

Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

'There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it,' said Roncaglia.

Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina.

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires.

Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Bullrich did note there were several medical devices.
Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find 'unheard of' in Argentina.

Cohen said: 'Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany.'

[derspiess]

Largest collection, my ass. 

[The Brain]

[derspiess]

The HJarmonicas are mine-- don't even think about it.

[viper37]

Largest collection, my ass. 

largest discovered.  If you haven't shown yours to the world, they can't know.

[Malthus]

Good lord, the Nazis had shitty taste. 

What's up with the Nazi Sphinx statue?

[Admiral Yi]

What's up with the Nazi Sphinx statue?

I've read they were into a lot of polytheistic stuff.

[Barrister]

Is it against the law to own Nazi memorabilia?  Why is this the subject of a police investigation and raid!  This is outrageous! He's just an honest collector of antiquities!

[Valmy]

The Nazis were ridiculously credulous. They believed in just about every crackpot woo shit you can think of.

[Malthus]

The Nazis were ridiculously incredulous. They believed in just about every crackpot woo shit you can think of.

"Credulous" 

[Valmy]

Thanks!

[CountDeMoney]

Evidence control, my ass.  www.ebay.ar

[Ed Anger]

My pants are a dairy factory.

[viper37]

Is it against the law to own Nazi memorabilia?

No.

Why is this the subject of a police investigation and raid!  This is outrageous! He's just an honest collector of antiquities!

Illegal importation of historical artifact is likely illegal in Argentina though.  There might have been tax or duties skipped.

[Caliga]

Did I tell you guys about the old clockmaking Nazi whose house I looked at buying.  Dude had a closet full of memorabilia.