London: Did Adolf Hitler sketch Walt Disney characters? Well, a Norwegian war museum claims to have discovered coloured cartoons drawn by the Nazi leader during the Second World War.

Museum director William Hakvaag said he found the cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and a sketch of Pinocchio as he appeared in the 1940 movie in a painting signed A.

Hitler that he bought at an auction in Germany. The initials on the sketches and the signature on the painting matched other copies of Hitler's handwriting, the director claimed, adding the paintings dated from 1940.

"I am 100 per cent sure that these are drawings by Hitler. If one wanted to make a forgery, one would never hide it in the back of a picture, where it might never be discovered. "Hitler had a copy of Snow White. He thought this was one of the best movies ever made," The Daily Telegraph quoted Hakvaag as saying.

Hitler tried to make a living as an artist before his rise to power, it is known. But, discoveries of Nazi-era memorabilia have repeatedly turned out to be mistaken or the result of a hoax.

However, art attributed to Hitler continues to sell at auction, even if its provenance is far from complete. Nineteen watercolours and two sketches said to be by the Nazi dictator were sold in Britain two years ago for 118,000 pounds.

The pictures of cottages and rural scenes were found in a farmhouse in Belgium and were believed to have been painted while Hitler was a young soldier in the country during the First World War.

Source : PTI