Nearly Two Years After The Discovery Of 1,406 Pieces Of Art, Confiscated By The Nazis, German Government Fails To Reveal Full Collection

The case of a treasure trove of 1,406 Old Master and, primarily, Modern paintings, drawings and prints, confiscated over the course of the Nazi rule in Germany, has ignited the ire of both the Jewish community and a large part of the world in general. The paintings, inherited by Cornelius Gurlitt, now 80, from his mother, first surfaced when surface after Cornelius Gurlitt offered a 1930 painting by Max Beckmann for auction in 2011, eventually selling it for $860 000 Euros.

In the over two years since the collection was “discovered” the German government has failed to reveal the full list of artworks, which increases the tension around an already difficult topic. The artworks were acquired by Hildebrand Gurlitt, the husband of Gurlitt’s late mother, an art dealer authorized by Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, to buy and sell confiscated art. According to Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, the government was informed of the cache several months ago, in March 2012. This collection might be the most massive cache of art confiscated by the Nazis found to date. It is estimated that after Hitler's government passed a retroactive Law on the Confiscation of Products of Degenerate Art, nearly 16,000 pieces of fine art were confiscated from 101 German museums. A large number of these pieces remains missing. The items revealed so far include important pieces by the likes of Gustav Courbet, Marc Chagall Picasso and Matisse among others. It would be rather shocking, if after 20 months, the authorities were still withholding something of similar stature.

According to the LA Times, the reason cited for the failure to reveal the works was that researching the entire collection was a difficult and time-consuming process. The government was reportedly concerned that the flood of ownership claims, expected to follow the collection’s reveal, would make the project even more difficult. Nevertheless, the authorities’ failure to reveal the confiscated art, combined with the already sore subject matter, continues to be the cause of noticeable tension in the country.