German police are investigating a major photography theft in Cologne, including hundreds of images by Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

Approximately 250 photos taken by Riefenstahl, who served as Adolf Hitler's official filmmaker, were snatched from the basement storage facilities of Photo Estate GmbH, according to a report from Reuters.

About 300 works by French-born U.S. photographer Elliott Erwitt, an early member of the famed Magnum Photo Agency, have also disappeared from Photo Estate, which is a subsidiary of Berlin gallery Camera Work AG.

According to police, the estimated value of all the stolen images is as high as four million euros (about $5.5 million Cdn).

Riefenstahl, who died in 2003 at age 101, made four films for the Nazis, including Triumph of the Will — often credited as the ultra-successful propaganda vehicle that helped aid the rise of the Third Reich.

Despite winning critical acclaim and a host of awards for her oeuvre — which included highly praised photos of Sudan's Nuba people and of undersea flora and fauna — Riefenstahl was never able to escape her ties to Hitler and the Nazi party.