Ammon News - A photograph has revealed a masterpiece owned by the National Gallery once hung in Adolf Hitler's flat in Munich, where he entertained his mistress Eva Braun.

The 16th-century Renaissance work Cupid Complaining to Venus is captured hanging in the living room of Hitler's apartment in the photo.

Painted by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, the artwork was bought by the National Gallery in 1963 from an American art dealer, Abris Silberman.

The dealer from New York told the gallery it had been bought at an auction in 1909 and then inherited by its then-owner.

However its true history has since been uncovered. Instead of being intended for a private audience, it was planned to be enjoyed by the masses in Hitler's Fuhrermuseum in his hometown of Linz, Austria.

The Nazis collected - most commonly by stealing or through 'forced sales' from Jewish families - thousands of artworks throughout Europe, with the intention of turning Linz into a cultural capital of the Third Reich.

Hitler favoured the painting and it joined the small collection that hung in his residences, including his Munich romantic hideaway at 16 Prinzregentenplatz - where he met with Braun.

The painting, believed to date back to around 1526, depicts Cupid complaining to his mother Venus after being stung by bees while stealing honey.

Daily Mail