Art Stash Found in Nazi-Art Hoarder's 2nd Home

A rep for Cornelius Gurlitt says they do not appear to have been looted
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 11, 2014 1:42 PM CST
Art Stash Found in Nazi-Art Hoarder's 2nd Home
Henry Matisse's 'Sitzende Frau' ('Sitting Woman'), which was among the artworks seized by German authorities in an apartment in Munich in February 2012.   (AP Photo/Staatsanwaltschaft Augsburg)

In November came the news that German tax inspectors investigating an elderly loner in 2012 uncovered a cache of 1,406 works, at least some since confirmed to have been looted by the Nazis, stashed amid expired cans of food in the man's squalid Munich apartment. That man, Cornelius Gurlitt, had more than just hundreds of paintings: He had a second home two hours away, in Salzburg, Austria, and in it, dozens more paintings, including works by Monet and Picasso. Most of the info on the latest revelation is coming not from officials—a German prosecutor had no comment, and Austrian officials say they're unaware of the case and haven't issued any search warrants related to it, reports the BBC—but from a rep for Gurlitt.

The rep says the works are being analyzed to determine if they were stolen, but "after an initial assessment that suspicion is not confirmed." Authorities "viewed and secured" the art yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reports by way of local media without specifying who those authorities are. The Wall Street Journal says the art never passed through police custody, and is in a depository, and Gurlitt's rep says the work left the home at the request of Gurlitt's legal guardian. Of the works found in Gurlitt's Munich apartment, 380 have been identified as Nazi-seized; he inherited them in 1956 from his father, a well-known Nazi-era art dealer. (More Cornelius Gurlitt stories.)

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