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Kunstmuseum Bern Obtains Trove From Gurlitt Collection Kunstmuseum Bern Obtains Trove From Gurlitt Collection
(about 7 hours later)
BERLIN — The Swiss museum named as the sole heir to a trove of art amassed by a Nazi-era dealer and kept hidden for decades will accept the bequest, made by the dealer’s reclusive son just before he died in May, museum officials said on Monday. BERLIN — A Swiss museum will accept the bequest of an immense trove of art amassed by a Nazi-era art dealer, but will ensure that any looted art in the trove is returned to its rightful owner, museum officials said on Monday.
Christoph Schäublin, president of the board of trustees of the institution, the Kunstmuseum Bern, or Museum of Fine Arts Bern, said he did not expect a last-minute attempt by a cousin of Cornelius Gurlitt, who bequeathed the collection, to prevent the museum from accepting it. The bequest was made by the dealer’s reclusive son, Cornelius Gurlitt, just before he died in May. A cousin of Mr. Gurlitt made a last-minute attempt to block the bequest, but Christoph Schäublin, president of the museum’s board of trustees, said he did not expect that action to prevent the museum from accepting it.
Mr. Schäublin said the decision, reached on Saturday, was “anything but easy” because of the origin of the collection. But he said the museum would seek to set a new standard in handling Nazi-looted art, by having a privately funded team of experts comb the history of each piece before it came into the museum’s possession. Mr. Schäublin said the museum’s decision, reached on Saturday after six months of deliberation, was “anything but easy” because of the origins of the collection. But he said the institution, the Kunstmuseum Bern, would have a privately financed team of experts vet each work before the museum takes possession of it.
Mr. Schäublin said a complete list of the artworks collected by Mr. Gurlitt would be made public, possibly as soon as Tuesday. That is intended to make it easier for potential claimants of looted art to come forward. An agreement reached between the museum, the German government and the state of Bavaria pledged to handle the collection with a high level of transparency. German authorities seized the trove after Mr. Gurlitt died at his Munich home. An agreement reached among the museum, the German federal government and the state of Bavaria calls for the collection to be dealt with as openly as possible.
But he emphasized that it would take time to fully investigate the Gurlitt collection. “We stand at the beginning of a long road,” he said. On Monday, the museum made public a group of ledgers kept by the elder Mr. Gurlitt from 1937 to 1941, posting them on a German government website, to make it easier for potential claimants to come forward.
The more than 1,000 works have been in the custody of the German authorities since Mr. Gurlitt died at his Munich home in May. Trustees of the museum, which is the oldest in Switzerland and has a permanent collection focused largely on the history of Swiss art, deliberated for half a year before deciding to accept the pieces. “Ultimately, our concern is to clarify the issue of whether and how the Kunstmuseum Bern can do justice to the responsibility imposed on it by the bequest — an exceptionally complex responsibility,” Mr. Schäublin said, adding that investigating the collection fully will take time: “We stand at the beginning of a long road.”
Mr. Gurlitt devoted his life to guarding the collection his father had amassed, much of it during World War II when he served as one of four art dealers commissioned to purchase pieces for a Führermuseum envisioned by Hitler. A team of international art historians and experts have been examining 458 of the works, thought to have been looted from Jewish families or sold to the Nazis under duress at below-market prices. Looted art remains a thorny issue nearly seven decades after World War II ended. Art experts and historians are hoping that the museum’s pledge of openness in handling the Gurlitt bequest will set a new tone for dealing with future discoveries of looted artworks.
Word of the collection’s existence, reported a year ago by the German newsmagazine Focus, sent the art world into an uproar, renewing concerns about the fate of Nazi-looted art and the rights of the owners’ descendants decades after the end of World War II. The Bavarian authorities had stumbled upon the collection during a tax investigation of the reclusive Mr. Gurlitt, but had not make their discovery public. Under the terms of the agreement, any works in the collection that are determined to have been looted are to be returned to the heirs of their rightful owners, at the expense of the German government. If no owner can be identified, looted works will remain in Germany on public display so that potential claimants can come forward. The rest of the trove will go to the museum in Bern.
Of the 1,280 works in Mr. Gurlitt’s collection that were originally seized by prosecutors as part of a tax-evasion investigation, some 240 are believed to have been looted from Jewish owners or bought from them under duress, according to Monika Grütters, the German culture minister, who said research is continuing. Another 238 works that Mr. Gurlitt had stashed in his vacation home in Salzburg, Austria, have yet to be scrutinized, but any suspect pieces among them will also be held in Germany while experts clarify their history.
“We are facing our historical obligation with the uttermost transparency in the provenance research,” Ms. Grütters said.
Christopher A. Marinello, director of Art Recovery International, who represents the heirs of the art collector Paul Rosenberg, said the arrangements for the Gurlitt trove “could be a game changer for the way cultural institutions handle this in the future.”
Mr. Rosenberg’s descendants are one of three families that are already known to be entitled to looted works found in the trove. Theirs is a painting by Henri Matisse of a seated brunette. David Toren, an 89-year-old New Yorker, expects to get back a Max Liebermann painting that belonged to his great-uncle, and a drawing by Carl Spitzweg called “Das Klavierspiel” has been found to have been looted from Henri Hinrichsen. All three works will be restored to their rightful owners “immediately,” Ms. Grütters said.
Mr. Gurlitt’s father Hildebrand Gurlitt amassed much of the collection during World War II, when he served as one of four art dealers commissioned by Hitler to purchase pieces for a proposed museum. The reclusive younger Mr. Gurlitt sold artworks occasionally, but otherwise kept the trove’s existence hidden. Its total value has been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Schäublin said at a news conference in Berlin on Monday that his museum would adhere to the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, which govern the investigation of looted works.Mr. Schäublin said at a news conference in Berlin on Monday that his museum would adhere to the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, which govern the investigation of looted works.
Jewish groups, which became involved in efforts to clarify the histories of the paintings shortly after a task force was set up by the German government and Bavaria, said that accepting the gift would give the Kunstmuseum Bern a rare chance to set a new standard in international provenance research. Jewish groups involved in researching the trove said the bequest gave the Kunstmuseum Bern a rare chance to set a new standard.
“This is an opportunity for the Swiss to stand up and do the right thing and set example for other countries in Europe,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Jewish Claims Conference. “This is an opportunity to say we haven’t always been up front in the past, but here we are taking the moral lead.” “This is an opportunity for the Swiss to stand up and do the right thing, and set an example for other countries in Europe,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Jewish Claims Conference. “This is an opportunity to say, ‘We haven’t always been upfront in the past, but here we are taking the moral lead.'  ”
Christopher A. Marinello, director of Art Recovery International, who represents the heirs of the art collector Paul Rosenberg, welcomed the agreement as a positive step that could have far-reaching implications for dealing with Nazi-looted art.
“I think this is excellent,” Mr. Marinello said. “It could be a game changer for the way cultural institutions handle this in the future.”