Argentina Donates Nazi Artifact Haul to Holocaust Museum

After announcing the discovery of one of the largest collections of Nazi artifacts in Argentina's history, the government says the cache will be given to the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.

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A bust of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses in boxes engraved with swastikas, and a medical device used to measure head size are among the 75 items found inside a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of the Argentine capital.

The Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said preliminary investigations indicated they are original; some were accompanied by photographs showing Hitler alongside similar objects.

Authorities believe they belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during the Second World War

To prevent any resales, Bullrich says the pieces will now be donated to the Museum to be "..held in a place of memory, to remember what happened, remember what the Holocaust was and join, as the Argentine state, with the world's need to recuperate and maintain that memory present forever."

The investigation began when authorities found “illicit” artwork in a city gallery earlier this month.

On June 8, agents from the international police force Interpol raided a collector’s house, after following a suspect for a period of time.

They discovered a large bookshelf, and behind it, a hidden passageway leading to a room filled with Nazi artifacts.

The collector, who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge, has not been identified.

Some items have already been authenticated, "We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass'' that Hitler was using, explained Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police, to AP. "We are reaching out to international experts to deepen (the investigation).”

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Investigators think the objects may have been taken to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi after 1945 when the South American nation became a key refuge for fleeing war criminals.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes said "Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany.'