Man who tried to sell purported Hitler bookmark sentenced to 30 days in detention

A Kenmore man who tried to sell a stolen gold bookmark that purportedly belonged to Adolf Hitler was sentenced this morning to 30 days in federal detention and three months of house arrest.

Christian Popescu, 37, pleaded guilty in March to sale or receipt of stolen goods for possessing the artifact, which was pilfered by unknown thieves from a Madrid auction house in 2002.

Popescu was arrested last November outside a Starbucks in Bellevue, where he had just met an undercover agent and agreed to sell the bookmark for $100,000.

The 18-carat bookmark is about 6 inches long and is topped with a swastika and an engraved likeness of Hitler.

Though some experts have questioned the story, the bookmark is generally thought to have been a gift to Hitler from his mistress, Eva Braun, to console him on the German army's defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943.

It is engraved in German, "My Adolf, don't worry ... (the defeat) ... was only an inconvenience that will not break your certainty of victory. My love for you is eternal as our empire is eternal."

After Hitler and Braun died in Berlin in the closing days of World War II, the bookmark is believed to have passed to the family of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler's armed-forces chief who was tried for war crimes at Nuremberg and hanged.

It eventually ended up at the auction house in Spain, where it was stolen along with other items just before its auction. Despite the hefty price Popescu was seeking, the insurance company only paid the auction house about $10,000 for its loss.

According to court documents, Popescu, a Romanian national, obtained the bookmark for $3,500 and had been seeking a buyer for about three years before federal agents got wind of it.

It's still not entirely clear how Popescu came by the bookmark.

In conversations with the undercover agent, he seemed to have detailed knowledge of the theft and smuggling it into the U.S., prosecutors said. But he later told authorities that he bought it from someone in a nightclub.

Popescu faced up to six months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors argued he should serve three months, in part because his attempts to sell it on the black market would have meant "that the bookmark would remain concealed from the public and the rightful owner."

Popescu's lawyer, Catherine McDonald of Seattle, asked the judge to give Popescu only five days of confinement, arguing that he has taken full responsibility for his crime and now faces difficulty in his desire to become a naturalized citizen.

In addition, Popescu has also suffered from all the worldwide publicity, the lawyer argued. In particular, he was lampooned by Jay Leno during a "Tonight Show" monologue in December, "much to Mr. Popescu's embarrassment."

The bookmark is still in the possession of U.S. authorities, who will be working with the Spanish government to return it to the proper owner, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com