The Easel

Archives: Nicholas O’Donnell

6th June 2015

Gurlitt Bequest to Kunstmuseum Bern is Upheld, Little Else Resolved

In late 2013, German police found 1400 art works in the residences of the elderly Cornelius Gurlitt. His father was an art dealer to Hitler. Some pieces were associated with Nazi art theft and others legitimately owned but in many cases ownership is unclear. Gurlitt re-wrote his will to leave everything to a museum just before he died. That will is being disputed. Moral issues seem clear but nothing else.