Israel and Germany agree to cooperate on looted art

This blog has often covered cases and disputes over art stolen from Jews during World War II.

The most recent news on this topic appears to be rather positive. Last week Israel and Germany signed an agreement under which joint-research will be conducted in museums in both countries to determine the provenance of art suspected to be Jewish-owned art looted during World War II.

The AFP reports that under the agreement, which was signed by the countries' respective Culture Ministers, art experts from Israel and Germany will undergo training and coordinate the formation of joint databases.

The agreement apparently formalises the ongoing cooperation between the two countries, which was particularly tested recently with the discovery of the "Gurlitt stash" (reported here, here and here).

German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters released a statement about the agreement, which says that the agreement represents a "huge vote of confidence" as Germany does not work with any other country in this way. The statement also provides further details as to how the agreement and cooperation between the countries is intended to work in practice. [Unfortunately it is in German, and that's about as far as my German goes. Curious German speakers can read the rest here.]

It will be interesting to see if there is any change to looted art cases going forward, in the wake of this agreement.

Gurlitt dies, hoarded art works remain

Earlier this week the BBC reported the death of Cornelius Gurlitt, the German art hoarder.

A beach scene by German impressionist Max
Liebermann was one of the important discoveries

At presents, says the BBC, there is no definitive answer on what will happen to Gurlitt's secret collection, which included many Nazi-looted pieces. More than 1,400 works were found in his Munich apartment, including pieces by Picasso and Matisse. Many were feared lost or destroyed before tax investigators uncovered his priceless collection in 2012.

Gurlitt, the son of Adolf Hitler's art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, was ordered to deal in works that had been seized from Jews, or which the Nazis considered "degenerate" and which had been removed from German museums. After initially refusing to cooperate with the authorities, he agreed to return works if it could be proved that they had been stolen.

Presumably an ancillary question remains as to the copyright in these works and as to who might be entitled to any proceeds of sale in respect of their commercial exploitation, a matter on which we can at present only speculate.

More artworks discovered in Austria

Back in November 2014, the discovery of a trove of hundreds of art masterpieces in an apartment in Munich made headlines around the world.

As we explained here, the trove was found by German authorities investigating Cornelius Gurlitt, the 81 year old son of Nazi-era art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. Upon entering Gurlitt's apartment, the authorities discovered the artworks, including some believed to have been looted by the Nazis.

It is now being reported that yet more pieces were discovered in a second home belonging to Gurlitt.

The Telegraph reports:

Officials investigating the secret Nazi-era art cache hoarded by an elderly German art collector are examining a second stash of paintings found at another of his addresses. 

Cornelius Gurlitt, who kept around 1,400 works at his apartment in Munich, also had around 60 pieces in a flat in the Austrian city of Salzburg, it was disclosed. 

...

The works were secured on Monday and were being examined by experts at Mr Gurlitt’s request to establish whether any of them had been looted by the Nazis, said [Mr Gurlitt’s spokesman, Stephan Holzinger].

“At the request of Cornelius Gurlitt, the works are being examined by experts on whether they include possibly stolen art,” he said. “A preliminary assessment based on an initial screening did not substantiate such a suspicion.”

Source: The Telegraph, 11 February 2014.

A Nazi-looted art trove of 1,500 masterpieces was discovered in Munich

A treasure trove worth around 1 million dollars has been recently found in an apartment in Munich.

The trove includes masterpieces of Picasso, Henri Matisse, Auguste Renoir and Marc Chagall. Other works among the 1,500 discovered were by Otto Dix, Franc Marc, Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoshka and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

The trove was found by German tax authorities while they were investigating on the possible tax evasion of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of the art dealer Hildebrandt Gurlitt. The tax authorities went into Gurlitt's apartment, where they expected to find few undeclared euros, but they discovered piles and piles of old food in every room of the house and behind these walls of food the trove was incredibly hidden.

Hildebrant Gurlitt was a well-known art historian during the Nazi era, who was tasked by the SS official Goebbels to sell the so-called “degenerate” artworks seized by the Hitler's government. Nazi regime seized around 20,000 works before the Second World War and many of them were shown during the "Degenerate Art" exhibition, which took place in Munich in 1937.

Indeed, many masterpieces were found "ungerman" by the Nazi regime: Hitler loved only classical art. Therefore, these masterpieces were seized, stolen from collectors - many of them Jewish. Jewish collectors were also forced to sell “degenerate” works of art at a very low price to art dealers, in order to purchase expensive visas to flee from Germany.

The recovered works are currently stocked by the Bavarian customs in Garching near Munich and a team of art experts is trying to find the rightful owners' heirs. One painting is said to be a Matisse's portrait of a woman previously belonging to the famous jewish collector Paul Rosenberg.

Source: The Guardian, 3 November 2013