Gallery piece 'owned by Hitler'

A painting owned by The National Gallery was once in the possession of Adolf Hitler, an expert has claimed.

Dr Birgit Schwartz, who is researching Hitler's art collection, says Cupid Complaining To Venus once hung in the Nazi leader's private gallery. She made the discovery while studying photographs from his personal library. A gallery spokesman said they had "no reason to doubt the claim" and appealed for anyone with information about the Lucas Cranach painting to come forward.

The gallery bought the painting in 1963 from New York dealers E&A Silbermann. It shows Cupid holding a honeycomb and telling Venus that he has been stung by bees. The National Gallery said it had only recently learned that the portrait was acquired in 1945 by Mrs Patricia Lochridge Hartwell, an American war correspondent in Nazi Germany.