Watercolours and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler sold for a total £115,000 (Dh803,762) at an auction on Tuesday, more than twice the expected sale price.
The 21 watercolours and two sketches most of them landscapes sold individually for prices from £3,200 to £10,500, the highest price was for a painting titled The Church of Preux-au-Bois, spokesman Chris Walton said.
Military buffs and curious neighbours gathered in this small Cornish town for the auction of scenes depicting cottages, churches and pastoral hillsides.
Attention from the sale forced Jefferys Auctioneers in the sleepy community to move the sale to a nearby hotel.
Around 50 onlookers gathered to see the work of a struggling artist who painted during breaks from the front while stationed in Belgium during First World War.
"This was not Hitler the military man or Hitler the dictator who had done these paintings and drawings," said Mike Palmer, 51, who attended to see what the fuss was all about.
The pieces were found in a farmhouse in Belgium, not far from where Hitler was stationed in Flanders. The auction house displayed the works along the wall of the hotel's restaurant, carefully encased in plastic to prevent damage.
The anonymous owners had the paper tested to determine its age, confirmed the signature and matched landmarks in the paintings to sites where Hitler was posted, said Walton.
Terry Betts, a 52-year-old resident, said the attention was good for the town, which depends on tourism.
"I don't have any trouble with the auction at all," Betts said. "It's part of history, not good history maybe. But we live with dictators like that now don't we?"
Are the paintings genuine? It's impossible to say. The experts who authenticated them in the 1980s are dead.
"Some people would consider the sale somewhat controversial, but the pieces were executed so long ago nearly 100 years ago that they now just represent something of the past," an expert said.
"The paintings are of historical interest rather than artistic merit."
Hitler is thought to have painted hundreds of pieces before becoming Nazi leader. In the past, his paintings have sold for $5,000 to $50,000.
Dealing with Hitler's work and other items related to the Nazi regime has always been a thorny issue.
In many European countries, including Germany, it is illegal to buy, own or sell Nazi memorabilia. A German auction house in 2001 withdrew a Hitler painting following public protests.
The Centre of Military History in Washington, DC, has hundreds of Nazi-related pieces including four Hitler paintings but they are locked in vaults and not on display.
"It's in very bad taste," said Rhonda Barad with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish advocacy group. "Most auction houses have steered clear of such sales because it offends a lot of people still alive today."
Buyers of Hitler items are usually private collectors of military memorabilia or Second World War enthusiasts, art dealers and auction houses say.
A stand-up comedian famous for gatecrashing the 21st birthday party of Britain's Prince William stormed the auction on Tuesday.
Aaron Barschak's latest stunt saw him invade the auction house in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, sporting a purple suit and a giant black beard and accompanied by a man dressed as Hitler.
Barschak and his companion, who said he was called Frank Sanazi, shouted they were bidding "six million because the painting was a Mussolini" before security guards dragged them away.
His wife Tamara said: "The sale here is offensive it should never have been held."
