A collection of "degenerate" art worth up to a billion euros was found during a search of the apartment Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of an art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt who collaborated with the Nazis

House in Munich ,
where the apartment was Cornelius Gurlitt found
collection of "degenerate " art
worth up to a billion euros
Source : artdaily . com

sensational discovery took place in the apartment of an ordinary apartment building in Munich's Schwabing district . In heavily littered the room , knocked together by hand on the shelves , hidden behind a curtain , were found about 1,500 works of art worth up to one billion euros. This is one of the largest collections of art seized by the Nazis from public and private collections. Among the discovered works - works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse , Marc Chagall, Emil Nolde, Franz Marc , Max Beckmann , Paul Klee , Oskar Kokoschka , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Max Liebermann , Albrecht Durer and others .

« Aladdin's Cave ", in which were found the treasure belongs to the 80 -year-old Cornelius Gurlitt (Cornelius Gurlitt), the son of an art dealer Gurlitt Hildebrand (Hildebrand Gurlitt). But the interesting thing is that the collection was found in the apartment of Cornelius already two years ago , in the 2011m , but the media reported about the finding only now .

art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt ( 1895-1956 ) from 1920 collected works of the modernists of the early twentieth century , subsequently called the Nazis " degenerate " artists. The works of "degenerate " art massively withdrawn from public and private collections . There were confiscated about 20,000 modernist works . Despite the fact that most Hildebrandt grandmother was Jewish propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used it as an intermediary in the sale of "degenerate " art abroad. However Gurlitt , who had a wide network of professional contacts , managed to not only sell "degenerate " art abroad , but also to buy the work for themselves, including in the power of the persecuted Jewish art dealers who were forced to sell works from their collections .

After the war, Hildebrand Gurlitt was able to convince the Allies that his collection was destroyed during the bombing of Dresden , and that he himself was persecuted by the Nazis . The dealer was killed in a car crash in 1956. Keep secret the collection passed to his wife , and after her death - to his son Cornelius . For years he chah over it as king Koschey , occasionally selling some works to ensure their existence . At the same time, he , apparently , and got caught. At the end of 2010, during an ordinary check in train from Switzerland to Munich, from Cornelius Gurlitt was found permissible by law , but still too large sum of cash . There is a theory that it was the money raised from the sale of one of his paintings Berne Galerie Kornfeld. Gallery hosts , however , deny the deal. After checking the train Gurlitt authorities suspected of evading taxes in 2011 , having received a warrant to search his apartment , discovered his secret collection .

heirs of Holocaust victims and the organizations that represent their interests require the immediate publication of the list of found work with photos. Many are outraged that the government of Bavaria conceal the fact of finding work for two years. Today in Augsburg be held a formal press conference dedicated to found the congregation. The most up- to date, the question - which of the works come from the collections of the former state-owned German museums (the law museums, alas, can not demand the return of their pre-war exhibits) , and which belonged to private individuals (these works fall under the restitution law ) . While it is known that among the works , for example , is " Portrait of a Woman " by Henri Matisse, once belonged to the Jewish art collector Paul Rosenberg .

Prepared by Mary Onuchina , AI

Sources : focus.de , bbc.co.uk , bloomberg.com , reuters.com , artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru