Photography Collection

In Cologne, Germany, 250 photographs by Leni Riefenstahl and 300 artworks of Elliott Erwitt have been stolen. Among the photos of Leni Riefenstahl are according to experts pictures from the Olympia's series of 1936. At that time the photographer had worked during the Olympic games in Berlin. Those photos are obviously vintage prints. All the stolen photographs have been kept in a cellar room of the Photo Estate GmbH in the centre of the city, a subsidiary of the Berlin Camera Work AG. The room has been protected by a burglar alarm, the offenders have opened him by force, said a spokesperson of the police. „ All stolen photo works are registered and numbered, so it is impossible to sell them.“ Gallery owner Rudolf Kicken from Berlin also estimates that the thieves have no chance to sell photographs of Leni Riefenstahl. „ There are for political reasons not many dealers, that offer photos of the artist.“ Riefenstahl was controversial because she produced films by order of the National Socialists and reflected in her photos the aesthetics of national-socialist art. Critics accuse Leni Riefenstahl that she has never argued really self-critically and intensely with her past in the Third Reich.