Hitler’s desk set fails to sell in Solana Beach

The military antiquities dealer in Solana Beach who was planning to auction Adolf Hitler’s inkwell desk set said last week that he and its owner could not agree on a starting bid price and the item has been returned.

Craig Gottlieb, a man of Jewish descent who deals mainly Nazi memorabilia, obtained the desk set in January to auction in the fall.

The bronze inkwell set was used by Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier to sign the disastrous 1938 Munich Pact, which annexed the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany as a way to appease Hitler. The Nazis invaded Poland a year later, starting World War II.

Gottlieb, who estimated the artifact could sell for $750,000 to $1 million, said he and owner Jack McConn of Houston disagreed on where the bidding should start. He sent the set back to McConn last month.

McConn, a World War II lieutenant, found the desk set in the basement of Hitler’s Munich office, known as the Fuhrerbau, in 1945. It sat at McConn’s house until 2008, when he initially tried to sell it.

The desk set is now at an auction house in Connecticut for a third attempt, Gottlieb said. The Anti-Defamation League has said it hopes the set will be used for education and not to glorify hate. Gottlieb said he had hoped to sell it to a museum.

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