The night before, I had been covering the annual Impressionist and Modern Art Auction at Christie’s-a night during which dealers, speculators, and private collectors had bought just shy of $144.3 million worth of art in roughly the amount of time it takes to watch a feature film. Nazi-looted art find includes unknown Chagall, MatisseĪccording to Gurlitt, he legally and in good faith inherited his massive collection from his father Hildebrand Gurlitt, who had been an art historian and dealer who had worked with the Nazis.At around 4 am on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, I was sleeping in a Manhattan hotel when I was awakened by one of my phones for the Wall Street Journal.German art hoarder denies paintings stolen from Jewish dealers.Last week, officials announced dozens more artworks had been secured from the reclusive Gurlitt's house in Salzburg.

Germany's Nazi-looted art site crashes due to high-demand.

The government has since unveiled more detailed information about Gurlitt's collection in order to aid those still hunting for Jewish-owned artwork seized or stolen by the Nazis (or sold under duress) as Jews fled persecution before or during the Second World War. The nearly two years of secrecy earned German officials widespread criticism from international groups supporting the restitution of Nazi-looted art. The massive confiscation of art from the collector's Munich apartment had been kept a secret but it was ultimately revealed by a German magazine in November.

Nazi-looted trove of 1,500 artworks, worth $1.4B, seized in Munich.

Last fall, German officials admitted that in 2012, authorities investigating a tax case had seized a trove of more than 1,400 artworks from Gurlitt - including pieces by masters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and previously unknown works by artists such as Otto Dix - worth about $1.4 billion Cdn. The new website is in German, with some sections translated into English.Īfter his collection is returned by German authorities, Gurlitt 'is prepared to review and arrive at fair solutions together with the claimants for those works that are suspected of being looted art, in such instances where qualified, documented, and justified claims for their return are asserted by heirs,' according to the website. 'With this informational site, we want to make clear that we are willing to engage in dialog with the public and any potential claimants,' Stephan Holzinger, a spokesman for Gurlitt, said in a statement.

San leonardo art trove looted art