Hidden Treasures of Nazis’ Art Dealer Finally Go on Display

Weeks after a German magazine tipped off the world that an 80-year-old man had hoarded hundreds of artworks collected by his father during the Nazi era in a Munich apartment, the world gasped at the prospect of rediscovering long-lost treasures.

This week, four years after the discovery of the collection inherited by Cornelius Gurlitt, the public will be able for the first time to view 450 of the most valuable works, previously seen only in photographs, in a pair of coordinated exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland and the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany.

The cabinet where Cornelius Gurlitt kept many of the paintings is on display at the Kunstmuseum Bern.CreditPeter Klaunzer/Keystone, via Associated Press

The parallel shows, running under the title “Gurlitt Status Report,” will allow the public to view works by Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Otto Dix and other artists found in Mr. Gurlitt’s apartment and in another home of his in Salzburg, Austria. The collection contains 1,500 items, including paintings, sculptures, sketches and drawings but also ledgers and other documentation, much of which will not be displayed.

Most of the finest works were acquired by Mr. Gurlitt’s father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer who began working for the Nazis in 1938. His son inherited the collection and kept it in the apartment for decades, until authorities discovered it as part of an investigation into tax evasion.

The younger Mr. Gurlitt died months after the discovery, leaving the collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern. But a distant cousin challenged the will. The dispute left the ownership of the collection in limbo for more than a year, delaying the exhibitions.

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The Gurlitt collection includes many modernist paintings branded “degenerate art” by the Nazis, such as Otto Mueller’s “Portrait of Maschka Mueller.” CreditPeter Klaunzer/European Pressphoto Agency

“Gurlitt Status Report” delves into the history behind the collection and the circumstances under which it came together. This includes an exploration of the ambiguities surrounding Mr. Gurlitt’s father’s personal history. He was persecuted as the grandchild of Jew, but he also became one of only four dealers allowed to sell artworks confiscated by the Nazis.

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Each of the shows focuses on a different aspect of the Third Reich’s policies on art. The Bern exhibition, “Degenerate Art, Confiscated and Sold,” opens on Thursday. Its focus is on works acquired as part of the 1938 law that allowed the Nazis to seize so-called “degenerate” art, mostly Modernist pieces viewed by Hitler as un-German or as Jewish.

Source: nytimes