Germany says it has handed over 14 works from Gurlitt trove

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have now handed over all 14 works from the art trove accumulated by late collector Cornelius Gurlitt that so far were proven to have been looted under Nazi rule, the government said Wednesday.

“Piano Playing,” a drawing by Carl Spitzweg, was handed over to Christie’s auction house on Tuesday at the request of the heirs of its rightful owner, Henri Hinrichsen, the government said.

The work was seized from Hinrichsen, a Jewish music publisher, in 1939. The following year, it was bought by Gurlitt’s father, Hildebrand Gurlitt — an art dealer who traded in works confiscated by the Nazis. Hinrichsen was killed at the Auschwitz death camp in 1942.

The reclusive Cornelius Gurlitt, who died in 2014, had squirreled away more than 1,200 works in his Munich apartment and a further 250 or so at a property in Salzburg, Austria. He inherited much of the collection from his father.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-germany-cornelius-gurlitt-3835dc95c9024f0c01b97c72f9dec719

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Absent the war and the Holocaust

Nazism was a system of plunder, passing the goodies up the pecking order. Historians don't really focus on this very much.

[abqtommy]

2. I recommend the Burt Lancaster movie The Train which is all about French art looted by the Nazis

being shipped to Germany by train.

[CTyankee]

5. Also see The Monuments Men" about the American art historians, curators, etc who were called into

service in WW2 to identify/help recover art stolen by the Nazis. It takes some theatrical "license" with the actual dates and facts but by and large it is a wonderful movie. Thank you, George Clooney!

[appalachiablue]

6. Lynn Nicholas' awarded book, 'The Rape of Europa' 1994

thoroughly documents the wartime period and theft of paintings by the Nazis.

In film, 'The Monuments Men' was a good introduction and 'Woman in Gold' 2014 with Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann is well done. It tells the story of Altmann and her lawyer retrieving the famous Gustav Klimt painting of her aunt, Adele Bloch Bauer in the possession of Austria many years after it was taken by the Nazis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Europa_(book)

[abqtommy]

7. Thanks. There's plenty of history available if we only look for it!

[AllaN01Bear]

3. very interesting. someone mentioned the movie the train,

here ya go.

[marble falls]

4. A too long delayed bit of justice.