BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine police have seized a cache of Nazi artefacts hidden behind a library in the house of an art collector in Buenos Aires, including a bust of dictator Adolf Hitler and instruments used as racial classification tools.

The artefacts will be donated to the city’s museum dedicated to remembering the Holocaust, said Security Minister Patricia Bullrich on Monday at a press conference.

“We were very moved that this many Nazi objects were in Argentina,” said Bullrich. “We are happy to be able to say that they are no longer circulating through sales or among collectors.”

Police and Interpol said they discovered the hidden cache behind a bookshelf and down a secret passageway. The roughly 75 artefacts included boxes, daggers and other objects bearing swastikas and depictions of Hitler, as well as devices intended to measure physical characteristics such as head shape.

Nazism was based on the ideology that people designated as having Aryan traits were superior to other races. In the 1940s, millions of Jews were murdered by the state in Hitler’s Nazi Germany, a genocide known as the Holocaust, along with others denoted as inferior.

After the fall of the Third Reich at the end of World War Two, a number of high-ranking Nazi officials fled to South America.

They included notorious figures such as Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, who was captured by Israeli intelligence agents in Buenos Aires in 1960 and later executed. The infamous doctor Josef Mengele, who carried out genetic research on humans, also lived for some years in the city.

Authorities, who have not revealed the identity of the collector, said they were working with historians to trace the objects and identify how and when they likely entered Argentina.</s>Federal police in Argentina recently discovered a time capsule of evil, hidden inside a house near Buenos Aires. Roughly 75 Nazi artefacts, including everything from a large knife to Nazi medical devices to a photo negative of Adolph Hitler, were uncovered in a secret room. Police are investigating when and how the items entered the South American country.

As Haaretz reports, agents from Interpol raided the home of the unnamed owner of the Nazi artefacts on June 8th. Some artworks of “illicit origin” were discovered on the north side of Buenos Aires, leading police to the man’s home. When investigators arrived they found a large bookshelf that was hiding a secret room. The man remains free, but it’s unclear if he will face any charges.

The investigators have reached out to Holocaust experts to learn more about where the Nazi pieces may have come from, but members of the Jewish community in Argentina believe that they must have been brought to the country by Nazi officials following World War II.

Members of the federal police show a bust relief portrait of Adolf Hitler at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

There was initially some speculation about whether the items could be reproductions, but investigators believe they’re originals. But there are obviously still a number of questions surrounding how they arrived in the country.

“Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told the Associated Press late yesterday.

A knife with Nazi markings is seen at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The discovery is the largest of its kind in Argentina, a country that has what might best be described as an unfortunate relationship with the Holocaust. After World War II, a number of top Nazi officials fled to Argentina, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.

Eichmann was discovered in Bueno Aires by Nazi hunters in 1960. He was brought to Israel and tried and hanged in 1962. Mengele escaped Argentina and fled to Brazil and later died in Paraguay. It’s not yet known if any of the items discovered this month personally belonged to Eichmann, Mengele or any other Nazis who escaped Germany.

Members of the federal police carry a Nazi statue at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

One reason that authorities in Buenos Aires has some degree of certainty that they are originals is that some items from the collection are pictured in photographs with Nazi leaders. For example, one item in the collection is a magnifying glass. The same magnifying glass is seen in a photo negative from the collection showing Hitler himself. Investigators showed the photo to the Associated Press on the condition that the photo not be published.

“This is a way to commercialise them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects,” said Bullrich.

A Nazi medical device used to measure head size is seen at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Some of the most disturbing items in the collection are medical devices, including items used to measure the size of human heads. Nazi scientists travelled the world in the 1930s measuring heads of different peoples, believing in a pseudoscience that superior races could be determined through facial features.

The collection also includes Nazi toys and other things that would have been targeted to Nazi youth, such as a collection of harmonicas featuring illustrations of young kids holding Nazi flags.

A member of the federal police shows a box with swastikas containing harmonicas for children at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

“There are no precedents for a find like this,” Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina’s federal police, told the Associated Press. “Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it.” [Haaretz]</s>Nazi collection found in Argentina could offer 'irrefutable proof' of top leaders' escape

In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artefacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect the artefacts are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

"Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said, adding that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs.

Among the items were toys that Ms Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police said one of the most compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

"We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass that Hitler was using," said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police.

"We are reaching out to international experts to deepen the investigation."

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector, and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8.

A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Authorities did not identify the collector, who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

Police are trying to determine how the artefacts entered Argentina.

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after WWII, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade.

He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Ms Bullrich noted there were medical devices.

"There are objects to measure heads — that was the logic of the Aryan race," she said.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find "unheard of" in Argentina.

"Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany," Ms Cohen said.</s>In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artefacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

"Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. "This is a way to commercialise them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects."

Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

"We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass that Hitler was using," said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police. "We are reaching out to international experts to deepen" the investigation.

The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to the Associated Press on the condition that it not be published.

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on 8 June. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Authorities did not identify the collector, who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

"There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it," said Roncaglia.

Police are trying to determine how the artefacts entered Argentina.

Who brought the Nazi paraphernalia to Argentina?

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the most infamous.

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He worked as a doctor in Auschwitz performing barbaric genetic experiments on inmates focusing primarily on twins. His cruelty meant he was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by the prisoners.

He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming at a beach in the town of Bertioga.

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Bullrich noted there were medical devices.

"There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race," she said.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find "unheard of" in Argentina.

"Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany," Cohen told the AP.</s>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

"Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,'' Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. "This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.''

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich speaks during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Delegation of Argentinean Israeli Associations (DAIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday. (Photo: EPA via CP)

Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

"We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass'' that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police. "We are reaching out to international experts to deepen'' the investigation.

The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to The Associated Press on the condition that it not be published.

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Members of the federal police show a bust relief portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires on Friday. (Photo: AP via CP)

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

"There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it,'' said Roncaglia.

Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina.

A member of the federal police holds an hourglass with Nazi markings at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires on Friday. (Photo: AP via CP)

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Bullrich noted there were medical devices.

Detail of artifacts bearing Nazi symbols that were recovered by the Argentine Federal Police (PFA), displayed during an event at the DAIA headquarters in Buenos Aires. (Photo: EPA via CP)

"There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race,'' she said.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find "unheard of'' in Argentina.

"Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany,'' Cohen told the AP.

Associated Press video journalist Paul Byrne contributed to this report.</s>Members of the federal police showing a bust portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Natacha Pisarenko (Associated Press) Earlier this month, police in Argentina raided the home of an art collector and found a door leading to a room full of Nazi knives, sculptures, medical devices, magnifying glasses, and a large bust portrait of Adolf Hitler.

"There are no precedents for a find like this," Nestor Roncaglia, the head of Argentina's federal police, told The Associated Press. "Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original, and we have to get to the bottom of it."

Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, told the AP: "There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race."

Investigators are trying to figure out how such an extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia made it into the South American country, where several Nazi officials fled at the end of World War II.

Here is the disturbing collection of Nazi artifacts that spent years collecting dust in one man's apartment in northern Buenos Aires:</s>BUENOS AIRES—In a hidden room in a house near Argentina’s capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country’s history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a medical device used to measure head size. Some 75 objects were found in a collector’s home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during the Second World War. “Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. “This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.” Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes. “We have turned to historians and they’ve told us it is the original magnifying glass” that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina’s federal police. “We are reaching out to international experts to deepen” the investigation.

The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to The Associated Press on the condition that it not be published. The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge. “There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it,” said Roncaglia. Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina. The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina’s Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after the Second World War, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

As leading members of Hitler’s Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga. Police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged. Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina’s Jewish institutes, called the find “unheard of” in Argentina. “Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany,” Cohen said.</s>A large collection of Nazi artefacts, including a bust of Third Reich leader Adolf Hitler, have been found by the police in a hidden room in a house near Buenos Aires, reported The Guardian. In a raid conducted on June 8, around 75 objects were found in a collector’s home in Beccar, a suburb north of the Argentinian Capital, which, authorities suspect, are originals belonging to high-ranking Nazi officials during World War II.

“Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said on Monday. She said that many pieces were accompanied by old photographs. “This is a way to commercialise them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.”

The objects found included magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas, a statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika and even a medical device used to measure the size of heads. Bullrich said toys that would have been used to indoctrinate children were also found.

The police is now trying to determine how these artefacts entered Argentina and came to be in the room hidden behind a library in the house, she said.

After the end of World War 2, Argentina became a refuge for fleeing Nazi war criminals. The main hypothesis among investigators is that the artefacts were brought to Argentina by the high-ranking Nazi officials.

While the police did not name any high-ranking Nazi officials to whom these objects might have belonged, Bullrich pointed out that there were medical devices found. “There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race,” she said.

While leading members of the Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele, who was the leading physician in Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, fled to Argentina after the war and lived in Buenos Aires for close to a decade. After the Israeli Mossad agents managed to capture Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires, Mengele, who was known as the “Angel of Death” during World War II, moved to Paraguay. He later died in Brazil in 1979.</s>Argentine authorities have discovered a trove of Nazi artifacts in a secret room in a house located in a Buenos Aires suburb, reports the Associated Press. The trove, which experts believe to be all original historical items and the largest collection ever discovered in Argentina, was found after artworks in a local gallery were flagged for their questionable provenance. While investigating the artworks, Interpol discovered a secret room hidden behind a bookcase inside a Buenos Aires home which was filled with Nazi artifacts and imagery. The identity of the collector has not been released, but an investigated is underway, according to the AP.

Inside the room, authorities made the unsettling discovery of 75 objects including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, a Nazi Eagle, children’s toys, musical instruments, magnifying glasses contained inside swastika-adorned boxes and a medical device used to measure head size.

“Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine security minister Patricia Bullrich told the AP. Photographic evidence in the room evaluated by historians shows Hitler using one of the magnifying glasses found in the room.

“There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it,” said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina’s federal police, to the AP.

While investigators are still working to find out how the objects entered the country and into the collector’s possession, one working theory is that they were brought by high-ranking Nazi officials after World War II who fled to South America.

“Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany,” said Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA).</s>Just outside Buenos Aires, in a hidden room in a suburban home, a secret collection of 75 Nazi artifacts has been uncovered by police. The memorabilia, ranging from a bust of Hitler to weapons adorned with swastikas, are believed to be owned by high-ranking Nazi officials during WWII.
A secret collection of Nazi heritage is found in Argentina.