by joe eskenazi
staff writer
John Barsamian’s story is a simple one. He saw the globe and he took it. Period.
But this was no ordinary globe. Short of the theater that Shakespeare built, it may now be the most famous globe in the world — and on Nov. 13 it sold for a cool $100,000 at San Francisco’s Greg Martin Auctions.
That’s because the Oakland born-and-raised Barsamian picked up his souvenir only days after V-E Day from Adolf Hitler’s bombed-out, ransacked house, a stone’s throw from Berchtesgaden, Germany.
“I was no student of Mr. Hitler, you understand. I was just an average guy who, by the way, had been to Dachau, and so I saw what had gone on there. So I didn’t philosophize on the thing. I wish I could make a dramatic statement, but it was just a situation where I saw [the globe] there in Hitler’s house,” recalled Barsamian, 91, who still resides in his hometown.
“I never visualized what I would do with it. But wouldn’t I have been a damn fool if I just left that thing sitting there? To me, it was something of value.”
It turned out to be of value to more people than just Barsamian.
The globe’s new owner, Bob Pritikan, is a former advertising executive who has also played the saw — as a musical instrument — with the likes of Johnny Cash and Eddie Fisher. He lives in San Francisco’s largest private estate, which doubles as an eccentrically decorated wedding site.
“I think it’s a priceless piece of mankind’s history. It’s probably worth a million dollars to some museum, I would think. I think I got a bargain,” Pritikan said of the globe.
“Hitler was the most ruthless and incomprehensibly evil human being who ever lived … and this was his globe that he used to look at and froth at the mouth over his plans” to rule the world.
“And now I own it.”
Pritikan, who is Jewish on his father’s side but an avowed atheist, plans to redecorate the downstairs of his mansion into something of a private museum. On the one side will be the globe and other Hitler paraphernalia. And on the other will be the sculptures of Benny Bufano, with the intended effect of displaying the best and worst of humankind.
“Hitler should be remembered for what he was — the ugliest human in history,” Pritikin said.
Barsamian, meanwhile, is tired of answering the oft-repeated query, “What are you going to do with the money?”
“What do you do with your money?” asked the former soldier, who is of Armenian heritage and has half-Jewish nieces.
He lost his beloved wife, Viola, three years ago, and has since put his house and all of his possessions into a trust for his relatives. He figured that his firsthand story would make it easier for him to verify the globe’s authenticity than for his two sons. So he opted to put it up for sale.
“I figured I should do something about it. Hell, I could die tomorrow. Now, thank God, it’s off my hands.”
And while he sums up his financial plans for the near future as “feeling my way and paying my bills,” he won’t keep his $100,000 windfall all to himself.
“I’m very concerned about children who have cleft palates. I’m going to put some money into that for sure.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California