ALBERT SPEER (14)

ALBERT SPEER (14)
(1905-1981) German architect, Adolf Hitler's personal Chief Architect and Minister for Armaments and War Production. Speer expanded slave labor, supplied mainly from concentration camps. Convicted at Nuremberg and served a 20-year sentence at Spandau Prison in West Berlin. Rare examples of Speer's artwork from his time at Spandau. Speer in 1980 sent photocopies of his works with prices to an American collector. While the invitation to buy his works was declined, the collector took photocopies of the photocopies and retained them for his records. The artwork by Speer shows a mountain home, scenic landscapes, stone buildings, a palazzo in Florence, other small sketches. The artwork ranged in price from 1500 to 4000 Deutschmark. Some of these copies show the stamp from Spandau Prison. Included is a signed letter from Speer, as well as other correspondence to and from Speer. The signed letter is dated Heidelberg, October 30, 1980, less than a year before Speer's death, in part: 'You may like to know that Macmillan, New York, intend publishing an illustrated documentation of my architecture in the Spring of next year...I enclose some photo-copies of sketches I made during my imprisonment in Spandau...Please return them.'