This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/europe/gurlitt-art-collection-germany.html

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
5 Works From Gurlitt Collection Wrongfully Taken From Jews, Task Force Finds 5 Works From Gurlitt Art Trove Wrongfully Taken From Jews, Germany Finds
(about 2 hours later)
BERLIN — A task force the German government set up to determine whether any of the more than 1,200 artworks amassed by a Nazi-era art dealer had been looted from Jewish owners wrapped up work on Thursday amid conflicting assessments of its success. BERLIN — After a two-year, nearly $2 million investigation, a German government task force set up to determine ownership of an art collection amassed by a Nazi-era dealer announced Thursday that it had identified the rightful owners of just five of the works whose provenance was in doubt.
The revelation of the artworks’ existence in a Munich apartment in 2012 stirred outrage, as did the idea that the collection, which could be worth many millions of dollars, had been kept secret for so long. The drawings and paintings were confiscated in 2012 from a Munich apartment owned by Cornelius Gurlitt — whose father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had collected them — as part of a tax evasion investigation. The authorities kept the find a secret until November 2013, when it was revealed by a German newsmagazine.
After two years of research by the task force, five pieces have been fully determined to have been wrongfully taken from Jewish owners, four of which have been returned to their descendants, German officials said at a news conference here to present the group’s final report. Of the more than 1,200 works in the collection, the task force identified 276 pieces that were either created by members of the Gurlitt family or were made after 1945. An additional 231 works were found to have belonged to German museums when they were removed by the Nazis as part of the “Degenerate Art” operation.
Monika Grütters, the culture minister, conceded that the work of the task force had not been completed as swiftly as initially hoped, and that the results were not those many had expected. But she added that important research had been conducted, and that the success of the efforts should not be measured in the number of restituted works. The task force was able to clearly identify ownership of only five of the remaining works of art, prompting criticism from Jewish groups, among others, about the pace and intensity of the effort.
“The results are much better than this number indicates,” Ms. Grütters said. German officials defended the results at a news conference here on Thursday at the end of the task force’s two-year mission, saying that important research had been conducted, and that the task force’s success should not be measured in the number of returned works.
The two-year project, funded by the federal government and the state of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, cost more than 1.8 million euros, or about $1.96 million. It involved establishing an initial catalog of the works and delving into their ownership histories through the task force. Monika Grütters, the culture minister, conceded that the work of the task force had not been completed as swiftly as initially hoped, and that the results were not those many had expected.
The drawings and paintings, which included works by Picasso and Matisse, as well as many lesser pieces, were confiscated in early 2012 from an apartment owned by Cornelius Gurlitt, whose father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had collected them, as part of an investigation into tax evasion. The authorities kept the find a secret until November of that year, when it was revealed by a German newsmagazine. “The results are much better than this number indicates,” Ms. Grütters said, adding that it was important to determine which works had been legally obtained.
After intense criticism in the art world over why the news was not immediately made public, the German government set up the task force and said it would work “as quickly and as transparently as possible.” She praised the task force’s international cooperation as singular in provenance research, as well as the involvement of both art and general historians, as well as legal experts.
Mr. Gurlitt died in May 2014 at age 81, and left the collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland. But after a cousin came forward to dispute his will, the fate of the collection became uncertain once again. “One lesson we have learned will stay with us, namely that speed and thoroughness are not both possible in provenance research,” Ms. Grütters said.
The task force, which included international experts and representatives from various ministries, found that 499 of the works had a questionable background. Pieces that could be determined to have belonged to the Gurlitt family’s private collection — 276 pieces that were either created by members of the family, or were created after 1945 — were excluded from further provenance research. Excluding the five works deemed worthy of restitution to the heirs of their Jewish owners, almost 500 require further research. That task will be carried out by a new agency, the German Lost Art Foundation. An additional 186 works that were found at a second home Mr. Gurlitt owned, in Salzburg, Austria, will also be scrutinized.
An additional 231 works were found to have belonged to German museums when they were removed by the Nazis as part of the “Degenerate Art” operation. Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, the director of the task force, said the international team — with members from Austria, France, Hungary, Israel, Poland and the United States — encountered issues of language and distance. The two-year project, funded by the federal government and the state of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, cost more than 1.8 million euros, or about $1.96 million. It involved establishing an initial catalog of the works and delving into their ownership histories through the task force.
Among the works whose histories have been traced, four have been restored to the families of their original owners. They include an oil painting by Max Liebermann, “Two Riders on a Beach,” that sold for $2.9 million at auction, and a portrait by Matisse, “Femme Assise,” or “Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in an Armchair,” that was given to the descendants of Paul Rosenberg. Other restored works include a Pissarro and a drawing by Carl Spitzweg.
The fifth work, a drawing by Adolph von Menzel, was determined to have been looted, but it has not yet been restituted.
Ms. Grütters has pledged €1 million more additional research over the next year, through the newly established German Lost Art Foundation. That will go toward investigating remaining works in the Gurlitt collection in Munich that had questionable histories, as well as 185 paintings that were found at a second home Mr. Gurlitt owned, in Salzburg, Austria.
One work that will no longer be under scrutiny is a fanciful watercolor originally attributed to Chagall and found among the collection in Salzburg. Last year, the Comité Marc Chagall determined that it was a fake. “This work is not a Chagall,” said Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, who headed the task force. “It is an imitation.”
“A lot of energy and public funds were put into the research,” Ms. Berggreen-Merkel said. “But it is not just about the artworks, it is about the fates of the people and family that stand behind these works.”“A lot of energy and public funds were put into the research,” Ms. Berggreen-Merkel said. “But it is not just about the artworks, it is about the fates of the people and family that stand behind these works.”
The international team — with members from Austria, France, Hungary, Israel, Poland and the United States — encountered issues of language and distance, Ms. Berggreen-Merkel said. Jewish groups lamented a lack of transparency linked to Germany’s laws protecting individual privacy, and the use of German for many official documents, despite the international nature of the project. Jewish groups lamented a lack of transparency linked to Germany’s laws protecting individual privacy, and the use of German in many official documents, despite the international nature of the project. An English translation of the 40-page final report is expected to be made available in several weeks.
“The task force could have progressed much more had its leadership managed the process properly,“ Ronald S. Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a statement. “We are concerned that the framework for further research at the German Lost Art Foundation remains totally unclear.” “The task force could have progressed much more had its leadership managed the process properly,” Ronald S. Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a statement. “We are concerned that the framework for further research at the German Lost Art Foundation remains totally unclear.”
An English translation of the 40-page final report is expected to be made available in several weeks. The report made public on Thursday did not detail what steps the new agency might take, or whether it would change its methods to speed up the process. Ms. Berggreen-Merkel told a German parliamentary committee last month, before the handoff to the new agency, that there would be “many works whose provenance will not be able to be definitively determined.”
Gregory Schneider, the executive director of the Jewish Claims Conference, which appointed two researchers to the task force, said Thursday that he was also disappointed by the results, but pledged to work closely with the new foundation “to ensure success.”
“There is still a chance to get this right, and we’re sure that Germany will do so going forward,” Mr. Schneider said.
Cornelius Gurlitt died in May 2014 at age 81, and left the collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland. But after a cousin came forward to dispute his will, the fate of the collection became uncertain once again.
Among the works whose histories have been traced, four have been restored to the families of their original owners. They include an oil painting by Max Liebermann, “Two Riders on a Beach,” that sold for $2.9 million at auction, and a portrait by Matisse, “Femme Assise,” or “Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in an Armchair,” that was given to the descendants of Paul Rosenberg. Other restored works include a Pissarro and a drawing by Carl Spitzweg.
The fifth work, a drawing by Adolph von Menzel, was determined to have been looted, but it has not yet been returned.
One work that will no longer be under scrutiny is a watercolor originally attributed to Chagall and found among the collection in Salzburg. Last year, the Comité Marc Chagall, which authenticates the artist’s works, determined that it was a fake.