London, March 25 (IANS) Hitler was a "pretty marginal and mediocre" artist and the works he put together as a 19-year-old student in a failed attempt to join the Vienna Academy of Art were of "moderate" standard. The anger at being rejected back in 1908 could have shaped Hitler into becoming the Nazi dictator who sparked the Second World War, an expert hinted.

"There's no latent genius here and not much beyond a moderate GCSE. Probably if the artist was at school today you wouldn't encourage him to keep the subject up at A level," said Michael Liversidge, emeritus dean of arts at Bristol University after going through the paintings that included nudes and landscapes.

"They just don't suggest he was more than pretty marginal and mediocre for a potential art school entrant then or now," Leveridge was quoted as saying by Daily Express.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, who is selling the archive at an auction next month, said: "We know Hitler was twice turned down by the Vienna Academy of Art. These works make up a collection that he would have submitted. It is possible that Hitler's rejection was something that helped turn him into the monster he became.

"It's the first time the pictures have come to light and can be seen by the general public."