Huge Stash of “Degenerate Art” Seized by Nazis Found in Munich – is this a Cover-up?

Some days the intrigues of the international art market are more exciting than others. This is one of them.

About 1,500 modernist masterpieces – thought to have been looted by the Nazis – have been confiscated from the flat of an 80-year-old man from Munich, in what is being described as the biggest artistic find of the postwar era.

The artworks, which could be worth as much as €1bn (£860m), are said to include pieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde. They had been considered lost until now, according to a report in the German news weekly Focus.

The works, which would originally have been confiscated as “degenerate art” by the Nazis or taken from Jewish collectors in the 1930s and 1940s, had made their way into the hands of a German art collector, Hildebrand Gurlitt. When Gurlitt died, the artworks were passed down to his son, Cornelius – all without the knowledge of the authorities.
– the Guardian UK

Here’s the painting that did him in:

MAX BECKMANN, Löwenbändiger – Zirkus (Lion Tamer – Circus)

Now, the authorities “caught” this guy 2 years ago shortly after he sold the Max Beckmann painting shown above from this stash – not because he sold a painting known to have been looted by Nazis, but because he turned up in a random cash check on a train by customs officers, and a tax investigation was launched. The stash was discovered when his apartment was raided in 2011. German Customs knew about this 2 years ago but haven’t said anything up until now.

The original article in Focus.de links to user comments that ask a lot of… uncomfortable questions. How is it possible that a known art dealer under the Nazis could have amassed this collection without current authorities being aware of it at all? How did the son of a known Nazi art dealer manage to sell works known to be in this collection? Whose protection was he under, and doesn’t this make the museum that verified the Beckmann painting’s authenticity complicit in covering up this stash of Nazi treasure?

As the title of the comments article states, „Das stinkt zum Himmel“; this stinks to high heaven.

…the plot thickens…