German recluse leaves art amassed under Nazis to Swiss museum
Bern Art Museum surprised at news as it had no connection with Cornelius Gurlitt, whose father put together the $1.4 billion-worth collection.
BERN - A Swiss art gallery discovered on Wednesday that it had been named as the sole heir of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive German owner of a hoard of masterpieces discovered accidentally in a tax probe, who died this week aged 81.
The Bern Art Museum said the news "came like a bolt from the blue" as it had no connection with Gurlitt. The collection - put together by his father Hildebrand, a dealer in so-called "degenerate" art for Adolf Hitler - is worth an estimated 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
Kunstmuseum Bern's director, Mathias Frehner, said in a statement that Gurlitt's lawyer had told him the museum had been named his "unrestricted and unfettered sole heir".
Related stories:
- Probe into Nazis and Jewish art exposes 'dealer to the Fuhrer'
- German recluse Gurlitt to return Nazi-looted art
- Reclusive German art collector who hoarded Nazi-looted art dies at 81
The museum's response was tempered by caution since an as yet undetermined number of the works, which include hundreds of masterpieces by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, were looted by the Nazis from their Jewish owners during World War Two.
"The Board of Trustees and Directors of Kunstmuseum Bern are surprised and delighted, but at the same time do not wish to conceal the fact that this magnificent bequest brings with it a considerable burden of responsibility and a wealth of questions of the most difficult and sensitive kind, and questions in particular of a legal and ethical nature," said Frehner.
The official of Gurlitt's lawyer, Christoph Edel, declined to comment. It referred questions to Gurlitt's spokesman, Stephan Holzinger, who said his client summoned a notary early this year before he underwent heart surgery, with his lawyer also present, but that it was up to the Munich district court to determine whether there is a valid will.
The court said it hasn't yet received the will, but that if it is found to be valid a foreign heir has six months to decide whether or not to accept the bequest.
Gurlitt, who died this week following a complicated heart operation, had secretly stored the works at his Munich apartment and a house in nearby Salzburg, Austria, occasionally selling a piece to finance his quiet lifestyle and his healthcare.
His family pretended the collection had been destroyed in the bombing of their home in Dresden during World War Two.
It remained a family secret until 2012, when tax inspectors stumbled across the hoard - including more than 1,000 artworks - during an unrelated inquiry. Some of the claimants are angry that Bavarian and German authorities kept it secret for 1-1/2 years until a magazine broke the news, forcing them to go public.
Some claimants hope that, with Gurlitt's demise, the probe into the provenance of the collection will proceed quickly, and will no longer be complicated by the pending tax probe into Gurlitt and his own claim to be the rightful owner.
Experts who examined the pieces seized in Munich said they included both what the Nazis called "degenerate art" as well as looted art.
The Nazis took so-called degenerate art - mostly avant-garde modern art, such as expressionism - from museums and public institutions because it was deemed a corrupting influence on the German people. Looted art was stolen or bought for a pittance from Jewish collectors who were forced to sell under duress during the Third Reich.
The media's fascination with the story looks likely to go on, with Germany's top-selling daily Bild reporting on Wednesday that public prosecutors had ordered an autopsy, even though Gurlitt's lawyer said he had died at home under medical supervision.
"To rule out any third-party involvement, we have ordered an autopsy. We want to err on the side of caution," Bild quoted Munich public prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch as saying, in an advance copy of an article due to be published in Thursday's edition.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
