What happened Cornelius gurlitt?

Following a number of years of ill health, Gurlitt died of heart failure on 6 May 2014 at the age of 81. The will he wrote shortly before his death unexpectedly named a small museum in Switzerland, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern (German: Kunstmuseum Bern), as his “sole heir”.

What is restitution art?

Works of art that were stolen or confiscated by the Nazis from museums and Jewish collectors are starting to be returned to the heirs of the former owners. Several looted artworks have, however, been successfully restituted in recent times. …

What was the greatest art theft in history?

It was the greatest art theft in history: 650,000 works looted from Europe by the Nazis, many of which were never recovered. But last November the world learned that German authorities had found a trove of 1,280 paintings, drawings, and prints worth more than a billion dollars in the Munich apartment of a haunted white-haired recluse.

What kind of art was stolen from the Louvre?

One of the finest works of the great Dutch master Vermeer, The Astronomer has been hanging peacefully in the Louvre since 1983. Before then it was owned by the French branch of the Rothschild family and was amongst the 19 crates of artworks seized by the ERR from the Rothschilds following the invasion of France.

Where was the billion euro art treasure found?

A newspaper hoarding reading ‘Billion Euro Art Treasure Discovered In Schwabing’ is displayed in front of Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment building. Photograph: Lennart Preiss/Getty Images

Who was the Jewish art dealer who fled Germany?

Even more interesting, according to Der Spiegel, the money from the sale was split roughly 60–40 with the heirs of Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, who had had modern-art galleries in several German cities and Vienna in the 1920s. In 1933, Flechtheim had fled to Paris and then London, leaving behind his collection of art.