A decade ago, authorities discovered some 1,280 artworks in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt. Works by Max Liebermann and Henri Matisse have since proved to have been looted by Nazis.
Cornelius Gurlitt's apartment was searched ten years agoImage: Barbara Gindl/APA/epa/picture alliance
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The collection of German art dealer Cornelius Gurlitt is one of the largest finds since the Second World War. Gurlitt was suspected of having stored cultural property seized by the Nazis in his apartment in Munich and his house in Salzburg.
His father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had been one of four Nazi art dealers who sold works designated as "degenerate art" for foreign currency — both at home and abroad. So-called "degenerate art" was Modern artworks whose style, artist or subject did not meet with the approval of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists.
Were Hildebrand Gurlitt and his son Cornelius beneficiaries of the persecution and expropriation of Jewish collectors? For the investigators, it seemed quite likely.
The Gurlitt case tells us a lot about how the German government failed for decades to come to terms with Nazi-looted art. With his gigantic hidden collection of more than 1,500 confiscated artworks, Cornelius Gurlitt should have been made an example of. In the end, however, only 14 of the artworks found in the Munich apartment and Salzburg residence were identified as Nazi-looted art and restituted after years of delay.
Gurlitt Collection: Germany's most infamous Nazi-looted art trove
So far, only 14 works were proven to have been looted under the Nazis among the some 1,500 found in Gurlitt's hoard.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
Carl Spitzweg, 'Playing the Piano,' ca. 1840
This drawing by Carl Spitzweg was seized in 1939 from Jewish music publisher Heinri Hinrichsen, who was killed at the Auschwitz death camp in 1942. It was acquired by Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt — and later found among the spectacular collection of works hoarded by his son, Cornelius Gurlitt. The work was auctioned by Christie's at the request of Hinrichsen's heirs.
Image: Staatsanwaltschaft Augsburg/Lost Art Datenbank
Max Beckmann, 'Zandvoort Beach Cafe,' 1934
The watercolor by the Jewish painter Max Beckmann entered Gurlitt's collection only in 1945. Held by the allied occupation forces at the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden from 1945-1950, it was returned to Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1950. Before working for the Nazi regime, Gurlitt had collected and exhibited modern art, curating Beckmann's last exhibition in 1936 before the artist fled Germany.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
Otto Griebel, 'Veiled Woman,' 1926
This work was owned by lawyer and art collector Fritz Salo Glaser. Artists of Dresden's avant-garde scene were his guests in the 1920s — as was the young Hildebrand Gurlitt. It is not known how Gurlitt came to possess the painting. It was confiscated in 1945 and later returned. Of Jewish heritage, Glaser only narrowly avoided deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
Claude Monet, 'Waterloo Bridge,' 1903
This painting by the famous impressionist is not suspected to have been looted. The artist sold it to the Durand Ruel Gallery in 1907. The Jewish art merchant and publisher Paul Cassirer is said to have given it to Marie Gurlitt as a present, and she left it to her son Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1923.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
Thomas Couture, 'Portrait of a Seated Young Woman,' 1850
A short handwritten note allowed provenance researchers to identify this work by the French painter as a looted work of art. The picture was seized from the collection of Jewish politician and resistance leader Georges Mandel, who was executed by French fascists near Paris in 1944. German Culture Minister Monika Grütters (right) handed over the work to Mandel's heirs in January 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber
Paul Signac, 'Quai de Clichy,' 1887
The activist group Provenance Research Gurlitt identified this painting by French neo-impressionist Paul Signac as stolen Jewish property in October 2018. Gaston Prosper Levy fled Nazi-occupied France in 1940. Occupying soldiers are believed to have looted his art collection shortly before his escape. The painting was returned to Levy's family in 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/Keystone/A. Anex
Auguste Rodin, 'Crouching Woman,' approx. 1882
Hildebrand Gurlitt must have acquired this work by the French sculptor between 1940 and 1945. Previously belonging to the Frenchman Eugene Rudier, it entered circulation in 1919 at an auction by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau, who is said to have received it as a present from the artist.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and Devil, 1513
This copper engraving by Albrecht Dürer once belonged to the Falkeisen-Huber Gallery in Basel. It is not known how it got there or how long it was there however. In 2012 the engraving turned up in Cornelius Gurlitt's collection. "Old masters" like Dürer were very important to the National Socialists' view of art and were often exploited for propaganda.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
Edvard Munch, 'Ashes II,' 1899
The provenance of this drawing is completely unknown. It is certain, however, that Hitler considered Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's work "degenerate art." Some 82 pieces by Munch were confiscated in German museums in 1937.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle/Foto: Mick Vincenz
Francois Boucher, 'Male Nude,' undated
Hitler venerated 18th-century French painting. He secured exceptional paintings for his own collection by targeting the collection of the Rothschild Family after the annexation of Austria. Hildebrand Gurlitt supplemented them with drawings by renowned French painters. He acquired this work by Boucher from a Parisian art merchant in 1942.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
In Gurlitt's apartment
Cornelius Gurlitt hoarded the sculpture along with many other artworks for decades in his Munich apartment. Before his death in 2014, he consented to have his stocks researched and — should they include articles of stolen art — have them returned to their rightful owners in accordance with the Washington Principles on Nazi-looted art.
Image: privat/Nachlass Cornelius Gurlitt
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Here's a chronology of one of the biggest cases related to Nazi-looted art:
September 22, 2010: During a train ride, retiree Cornelius Gurlitt catches the eye of customs officers at the Swiss border. A body search reveals he is carrying € 9,000 ($10,000). Gurlitt claims that the money came from selling art to Swiss dealer Eberhard W. Kornfeld. Officials become suspicious. Could there be a tax offense involved?
February 28, 2012: Gurlitt's apartment in the Schwabing district of Munich is searched. Investigators discover 1,280 valuable works of art and confiscate them. Yet the question arose as to whether a possible criminal tax case was reason enough to confiscate an art collection and fail to return it for years. The confiscation was legitimized by the suspicion that the Gurlitt collection contained looted art. At this point in time, there were still hundreds of additional paintings hidden in his Salzburg house that had not yet been discovered.
The media make the Gurlitt case public
November 3, 2013: The German magazine "Focus" reports on the case. It prejudges Gurlitt and writes about a "Nazi treasure worth billions." After that, international press pick up the story.
How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Before he was a dictator, Adolf Hitler was a painter. The "Führer" categorized works of art according to his personal taste. Works he hated were branded "degenerate art" and removed from museums.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Degenerate art
Modern artworks whose style, artist or subject did not meet with the approval of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists were labeled "degenerate art." From 1937, the Nazis confiscated such works from German museums. In a traveling exhibition, "degenerate art" was held up for public ridicule. Here we see Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Hitler at the original exhibition in Munich.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hitler's art
Hitler had an affinity for Romanticism and 19th century painting and preferred peaceful country scenes. His private collection included works by Cranach, Tintoretto and Bordone. Like his role models Ludwig I. of Bavaria and Frederick the Great, Hitler wanted to manage his own art exhibition at retirement, to be shown in the city of Linz on the River Danube in the "Führer Museum."
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection/Actual Films
The confiscations
The National Socialists were not the first to persecute avant-garde artists, but they took it a step further by banning their works from museums. In 1937, the authorities had over 20,000 art works removed from 101 state-owned German museums. Anything that the Nazis didn't consider edifying to the German people was carted off.
Image: Victoria & Alber Museum
Hitler's national style
Abstract art had no place in Hitler's "national style," as grew clear when the "Great German Art Exhibition" put traditional landscape, historical and nude paintings by artists including Fritz Erler, Hermann Gradl and Franz Xaver Stahl on display in Munich on July 18, 1937. The closer the depicted subject to the actual model was, the more beautiful it was in the eyes of the Führer.
Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-C10110/CC-BY-SA
What was considered degenerate
Even those in Hitler's inner circle were highly unsure which artists he approved of. The 1937 "Great German Art Exhibition" and the simultaneous "Degerate Art" exhibition in Munich's Court Garden Arcades brought some clarity. Unwelcome were creative artists of the modern period including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Pechstein.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Degenerate art on tour
In the "Degerate Art" exhibition, 650 confiscated artworks from 32 German museums were on display, the exhibits equated with sketches by mentally handicapped persons and shown together with photos of crippled persons. The intention: to provoke revulsion and aversion among visitors. Over two million visitors saw the exhibition on its tour of various cities.
Image: cc-by-sa/Bundesarchiv
Legal foundation
The "Degenerate Artworks Confiscation Law" of May 31, 1938 retroactively legalized their unremunerated acquisition by the state. The law remained valid in the postwar years, the allies determining that it had simply been a redistribution of state property. Unlike stolen artworks, pieces that the Nazis labled "degenerate" and had removed from museums can be freely traded today.
Image: CC by Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
The "degenerate art" trade
The confiscated art was taken to storage facilities in Berlin and at Schönhausen Palace. Many works were sold by Hitler's four art merchants: Bernhard A. Böhmer, Karl Buchholz, Hildebrand Gurlitt and Ferdinand Möller. On March 20, 1939 the Berlin fire department burned approximately 5,000 unsold artifacts, calling it an "exercise."
125 works were earmarked for an auction in Switzerland. A commission charged by Hermann Göring and others with liquefying the "degenerate" art products estimated the minimum bidding prices and commissioned the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne to carry out the auction. Taking place on June 30, 1939, it met with eager interest worldwide.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Much "degenerate art" in the Gurlitt collection
Over 21,000 works of "degenerate art" were confiscated. Estimates on the number subsequently sold differ; sources estimate 6,000 to 10,000. Others were destroyed or disappeared. Hundreds of artworks believed lost turned up in Cornelius Gurlitt's collection — and reignited the discussion.
Image: privat/Nachlass Cornelius Gurlitt
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November 11, 2013: The "Schwabing Art Trove Task Force" headed by administrative lawyer Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel is tasked with investigating the origin of the paintings and clarifying whether the seized paintings include looted art.
Just one day later, 25 works are published on lostart.de. The online platform aims to help works of unclear provenance find their way to the descendants of their former owners.
November 19, 2013: The authorities announce that hundreds of paintings that undoubtedly belong to Gurlitt will be returned to him.
December 23, 2013: It becomes known that Gurlitt will be placed under the provisional care of Munich lawyer, Christoph Edel.
January 28, 2014: The task force announces that after an initial review, 458 works from the Gurlitt collection are suspected to be looted art.
Gurlitt agrees to restitution
February 10, 2014: 60 more valuable paintings are found in Gurlitt's house in Salzburg, including paintings by Picasso, Renoir and Monet. Later, it turns out that there are as many as 238 works in total.
April 7, 2014: Gurlitt's lawyers sign an agreement with the German government in which he agrees to voluntarily return all paintings that were looted by the Nazis.
April 9, 2014: The Augsburg public prosecutor's office releases the seized paintings after more than two years. Authorities announced that throughout the course of the investigation, new findings had emerged. The legal situation has been reassessed. After more than two years, Cornelius Gurlitt will get his paintings back.
May 6, 2014: Cornelius Gurlitt dies at the age of 81 in his apartment in Munich without having seen his art collection again.
May 7, 2014: According to his will, Gurlitt bequeathed his collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland.
September 5, 2014: According to the task force, another valuable painting has been found in Gurlitt's estate: The painting "Evening Landscape" by Claude Monet.
Gurlitt bequeaths collection to Bern Art Museum
November 17, 2014: An expert opinion by the psychiatrist and lawyer Helmut Hausner as commissioned by members of the Gurlitt family becomes known, according to which Cornelius Gurlitt had suffered from "paranoid delusions."
November 21, 2014: Cornelius Gurlitt's cousin, Uta Werner, lays claim to the art collector's inheritance.
November 24, 2014: The Kunstmuseum Bern confirms that it would accept the inheritance.
The Kunstmuseum Berlin, the German government and the Free State of Bavaria sign an agreement in Berlin which stipulates that Bern will only take over works that can be proven not to be looted art. Uta Werner and other Gurlitt relatives contest the will and a protracted legal battle begins. The question of whether or not Cornelius Gurlitt was of sound mind in order to make will is litigated, first at the district court, then at the Munich Higher Regional Court.
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Restitution: Matisse and Liebermann
"Seated Woman" by Henri Matisse was returned to a representative of the Rosenberg family on May 15, 2015Image: Wolf Heider-Sawall/Art Recovery Group/dpa/picture alliance
May 12, 2015: The Munich District Court rules that two paintings in the collection,"Seated Woman" by Henri Matisse and "Two Paintings on the Beach" by Max Liebermann, are to be restituted to the heirs of the former Jewish owners.
December 15, 2016: The Munich Higher Regional Court communicates its decision: Gurlitt's will was valid and he is the rightful heir. This means that the Kunstmuseum Bern can accept the inheritance.
November 2, 2017: The Kunstmuseum Bern and the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn open the double exhibition "Gurlitt: Status Report 'Degenerate Art' — Confiscated and Sold." It's the first time the works are shown to a broad public.
January 13, 2021: A drawing by Carl Spitzweg is restituted as presumably the last work from the Gurlitt Collection. A total of 14 works were identified in connection with the art find as having been seized as a result of Nazi persecution were returned in January.
The Kunstmuseum Bern announced the restitution of the watercolors "Dompteuse" and "Dame in der Loge" by Otto Dix in December 2021Image: Mick Vincenz/Kunstmuseum Bern/dpa/picture alliance
December 10, 2021: After several years of examination, the Kunstmuseum Bern divests itself of 38 works from the collection. The museum announced that nine of the paintings were clearly stolen by the Nazis and were then returned to their rightful owners. They said there were no indications that other works were looted art.
February 25, 2022: In an interview with German press agency dpa, Christoph Edel, Gurlitt's former guardian, accused "the public prosecutor's office, politics, the media" of taking no interest in "Gurlitt's view of things" or in "his person. "It was a reckless treatment of an old person, who legally could not be accused of anything, and also whether he could be accused of anything morally is questionable, if you think of his health and family situation," Edel criticized.
The perception of the Gurlitt case has changed over the years — and it has remained a significant case all along. It also became clear that the public prosecutor's office was rushing to confiscate the works in Gurlitt's possession, while the initial use of terms such as "Nazi treasure," was a gross exaggeration.
Importantly, the case prompted German museums to increasingly face up to their past and to critically examine their collections for cultural assets that were seized as a result of Nazi persecution.
