Iranian gallery shows paintings by young Adolf Hitler

An art exhibition in Iran is showcasing two paintings by Adolf Hitler, from the period when the future Nazi dictator was still an aspiring artist.

According to a report by the Iranian Students’ News Agency, the exhibition “Color, Canvas, Architecture,” which opened at Tehran’s Dafineh Art Gallery on Monday, features 25 pieces by Iranian and foreign artists, many of whom focused in their work on architectural renderings and urban landscapes.

The two Hitler pieces are estimated to have been painted between 1900 and 1910, when he was living in Vienna.

Hitler was aspiring to become an artist before he embarked on the political career that saw the Third Reich rise and fall, bringing with it the destruction of vast parts of Europe and the Holocaust — the largest-scale genocide in history.

Hitler’s paintings occasionally come up in auctions, where they command relatively high prices for the curiosity aspect of having been painted by the man who would become the world’s most notorious tyrant.

His paintings show some technical skill but are artistically unremarkable, art critics say.

According to the report, in which Hitler is described as a “notorious dictator,” the exhibition also features works by Frenchman Eugene Flandin, Russian Sergei Kolesnikov, Spaniard Garcia Rodriguez and Iranians Mehdi Taeb, Esmail Ashtiani, Yervand Nahapetian, Houshang Seyhoun and Mohammad Reza Atashzad.