The Washington Post notes two American museums battling in court to prevent works claimed as Nazi-loot from returning to the families who claim them as rightfully theirs.  “I find it outrageous, and I’m embarrassed,” says Oklahoma state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, one of the museums refusing to return a work. “With this artwork, we have definitive proof that it was stolen. We have copies of the Nazi documents. As an Oklahoman, I think it’s a moral outrage.” (more…)

A Los Angeles Judge has rejected a lawsuit against the nation of Spain and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid to return a Camille Pissarro taken from the Cassirer family through forced sale by Nazis in 1939.  The painting, Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie, was subject to Spanish law, Judge John F. Walter ruled, and therefore could not be removed by his decision.  The family plans to appeal.  “Museums and governments around the world recognize the need to return Nazi-looted art to its rightful owners,” said Laura Brill, a lawyer for the Cassirer family. “Here, it is undisputed that the Pissarro was owned by the Cassirer family until it was stolen by the Nazis in 1939.” (more…)

A Munich court ruled in favor of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s claim to the trove of Cornelius Gurlitt this past week, rejecting the suit by Gurlitt’s cousin Uta Werner.  Even so, the situation remains mostly unresolved, as the Task Force appointed to sort the provenance of the works have only returned a handful of findings, and several works are already under legal contention. (more…)

An El Greco from the collection of industrialist Julius Priester, and seized by the Gestapo during WWII, has been returned to its rightful owners.  Portrait of a Gentleman has traveled widely since its confiscation in 1944, turning up in galleries in Stockholm, New York and London before a European Commission for Looted Art claim led to its return.  “The story of the seizure and trade of this painting shows how much the art trade has been involved in the disposal of Nazi-looted art and how difficult it is for those who have been dispossessed to find and recover their property,” says Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission. (more…)

Following the death of Cornelius Gurlitt, the works he had willed to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland have hung in limbo, the subject of a dispute filed by his cousin Uta Werner, which questions the authenticity and authority of his will.  “The Board of Trustees regrets this delay, in particular because it will impede the settlement of restitution cases that have already been clarified and endorsed by the Kunstmuseum Bern, but the circumstances are beyond its control,” the museum said in a statement. (more…)

The Art Newspaper has published a profile on Wolfgang Gurlitt this week, a cousin of the late Cornelius Gurlitt, and an avid art dealer who sold a sizable number of works to the Austrian city of Linz. Much of the collection’s provenance remains shady or undocumented, and investigations are still underway. (more…)

The Kunstmuseum Bern has released a full list of the works received from Cornelius Gurlitt, offering the most in-depth look at the collection since it was discovered.  The museum has announced that it will be accepting the collection, but released the full list “in the interests of transparency.” (more…)

German investigators have announced that they have found a landscape by Claude Monet hidden inside the suitcase of Cornelius Gurlitt, adding yet another work to the considerable selection of works he had stored away in his Munich apartment.  Gurlitt had apparently tried to bring the work with him when he left for the hospital, which scholars are estimating was painted around 1864. (more…)

Helly Nahmad, recently convicted to a year in prison following his role in an illegal gambling ring, is being sued alongside his father for allegedly helping to hide a $20 Million Modigliani reportedly looted by Nazis.  The case, filed  by Frenchman Phillippe Maestracci in Manhattan Supreme Court this week, argues that the painting was hidden through a secretive company called International Art Center, and will attempt to force Nahmad to disclose the IAC’s leadership, and where it is located.  “This painting was bought at a Christie’s London auction in 1996 by IAC, and the location of the painting is a matter of public record,” says Nahmad lawyer Richard Golub. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal summarizes the deathbed agreement of Cornelius Gurlitt to relinquish his collection of Nazi-looted art works, including the exchange of national pressures, personal politics and legal wrangling that ultimate led Gurlitt to sign the works over to Bern’s Kunstmuseum without notifying the museum directly until after Gurlitt’s death last week.  “It all went a bit crazy,” says museum director Mathias Frehner. (more…)

An agreement between Cornelius Gurlitt and the German government was announced on Monday, which gives state-appointed investigators one year to analyze the works seized from Mr. Gurlitt’s home.  The deal bypasses the German statute of limitations for stolen property (30 years), and shows the government’s increased willingness to deal with claims over works looted during the Nazi era.  “We are dealing with a top-class team of experts, and given Mr. Gurlitt’s advanced age and frail health, it can be expected that they should be able to complete their work within this time frame,” says spokesman Stephan Holzinger. (more…)

Cornelius Gurlitt, the Munich man at the center of the discovery of hundreds of artworks potentially looted from Jewish collectors during World War II, has announced that he will begin returning the works to their rightful owners.  The return will begein this week, as Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in Armchair, an iconic Matisse, is delivered to the descendants of French collector Paul Rosenberg.  “Mr. Gurlitt has given us free rein to return those pictures that belonged to Jews to their previous owners or their descendants,” says court-appointed lawyer Christoph Edel. (more…)

Cornelius Gurlitt, the German man at the center of the controversy over thousands of Nazi-looted artworks found in his Munich apartment, has launched a website in an attempt to tell his side of the story.  “Some of what has been reported about my collection and myself is not correct or not quite correct,” Gurlitt says on the site. “Consequently my lawyers, my legal caretaker and I want to make available information to objectify the discussion about my collection and my person.” (more…)

A cache of 60 artworks have been removed from the Salzburg home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the elderly son of a Nazi-era dealer whose trove of over 1,000 works was seized late last year from his Munich flat.  The new set of works features paintings by Renoir and Picasso, among many others.  “Cornelius Gurlitt has ordered experts to examine these works on suspicion of having been looted,” says spokesman, Stephan Holzinger. (more…)

ArtNews offers an inside look on the secret market for Nazi-looted artworks, an underground network of curators, dealers and collectors who maintained a market for looted works long after the war.  With little involvement from occupying American forces, former influential Nazi art officials quickly attained positions of prominence again after the war, often maintaining ties to collectors with little qualms in purchasing formerly confiscated works.   (more…)

A Sotheby’s New York auction this coming Thursday will feature three works recovered by the famous “Monuments Men” after Nazi confiscation during World War II.  The works by Apollonio di Giovanni, Jean-Baptiste Pater and Francesco Guardi are expected to sell between $150,000 and $500,000, and bear rare markings from their Nazi owners.  “The front is an artwork, and the back is an artifact,” says Lucian Simmons, of Sotheby’s restitution department. (more…)

A once Nazi-looted painting has been returned to its rightful owner, who in turn donated it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The donation is a rare occurrence for looted works, which are often sold to cover inheritance claims.  The 17th century Baroque portrait by Bernardo Strozzi was installed Monday on the third floor of LACMA. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the private life of German collector Cornelius Gurlitt, whose huge trove of Nazi-looted art, including works by Otto Dix and Pablo Picasso, left him leading a secluded existence in his Munich flat.  “There is nothing I have loved more in my life than my pictures,” he said. (more…)

The recent disclosure of hundreds of looted Nazi artworks discovered this past month in Munich has families around the world digging through archives and records in an effort to fulfill their claims to a number of masterpiece works confiscated or sold during World War II.  “It’s a little out of the respect for the memory of my grandfather that I pursue it,” says Michel David-Weill, former banker whose grandfather’s Canaletto etching appeared in the first round of works placed on the Lost Art Database. (more…)

The Guardian reports on the exploits of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Nazi art theft division that was responsible for the theft of over 5 million works during its existence, including loot from the Uffizi, the Louvre, and countless churches across Europe.  It is reported that one of the group’s most infamous prizes, the Mona Lisa, was rumored to have been recovered from an Austrian salt mine after the war, although recent research has determined that this loot was in fact a copy of the original work. (more…)

In response to heated demands by Jewish political groups and advocates, the German government has disclosed information on the collection of over 600 works found in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt.  At least 590 of the works may have been looted during World War II, the government announced.  At least 25 have already been listed in the Lost Art Internet Database.  “We can well understand that especially Jewish organisations are asking many questions. They represent older people who were treated very badly,” said spokesman, Steffen Seibert. (more…)

The story behind the collection of Nazi-looted artworks discovered in a Munich flat this week has taken a new twist, with the discovery that the works had toured the U.S. after World War II, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Part of the collection of Nazi propaganda director Hildebrand Gurlitt traveled to the United States as part of a larger show in 1956, reports illustrate, showing the increasingly difficult challenges of locating the artworks’ original owners. (more…)

German artist Jonathan Meese has been acquitted of making a Nazi salute gesture during a performance last year, winning out with a defense claiming constitutional protection for artistic freedom.  The accusations stemmed from a performance Meese gave at “Megalomania in the Art World” last year at Kassel University.  “Art has triumphed,” Meese said. “Now I am free.” (more…)

Artist Jan Mostaert’s painting Discovery of America, depicting a group of Spanish soldiers aiming cannons at an indigenous group of people, has been purchased by the Rijksmuseum.  Previously owned by Marei von Saher, the work had been taken from her father in law, dealer Jacques Goudstikker, by the Nazis during World War II, and was returned to von Saher in 2006.  “It’s a picture that a lot of people were interested in both in North and South America because of it being such an important historical picture,” said dealer Hugo Nathan, “but Mostaert is arguably the most important early Dutch painter, as opposed to being a Flemish master, and the Rijksmuseum was always hoping to secure it for the Dutch nation.” (more…)