The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Dealing with the Gurlitt Collection: A German Scandal

2021-01-13T19:19:59.320Z


The last looted art picture from the Gurlitt Collection was returned - now the unspeakable behavior of the federal government in this matter must be dealt with.


Icon: enlarge

Max Liebermann painting "Two Riders on the Beach" (1901): The German government felt caught out

Photo: picture alliance / dpa

In November 2013, the public learned of a mysterious art collection in Munich, which had been confiscated a year and a half earlier in an apartment in Schwabing.

It soon became known that the owner, an elderly man named Cornelius Gurlitt, had inherited it from his father, a Nazi art dealer - and then hid it for decades.

After the disclosure by the »Focus« there was worldwide reports about this Germany, which prides itself on its reprocessing and suddenly appeared so incorrigible.

Because it made it possible for people like Gurlitt to lock themselves in with their looted property - with images that in all probability had been snatched from Jewish families.

And then the German authorities prolonged the secrecy and continued to hide the works themselves for many months.

The German government felt caught out, reacted nervously, from now on it wanted to do everything right, to make amends.

But then she turned up unspeakably.

How it went about it was - and still is - a multiple scandal.

Gurlitt, over 80 years old, who had a weak heart and was not left alone by politics, died in May 2014 - six months after everything became known.

Shortly beforehand, he had been made to sign a document and leave the processing and possible restitutions to the federal government.

The seizure in Munich had taken place from the end of February 2012, later pictures from Gurlitt's house in Salzburg were added.

Many years later, on Wednesday, the office of Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters sent a message stating that the last work identified as looted art had now been restituted.

It is a drawing by Carl Spitzweg, its title reads "Das Klavierspiel", and at the request of the heirs, the sheet went to an auction house the day before.

more on the subject

  • Nazi-looted art: For the time being, the last restitution from the Gurlitt collection returned

  • Icon: Spiegel PlusNS looted art: The process that the federal government wants to prevent An interview by Ulrike Knöfel

  • On the death of Cornelius Gurlitt: A paralyzed life by Ulrike Knöfel

The reference to the auction house is superfluous, almost shabby information that has nothing to do with the case and is probably only good for fueling resentment - for years it has been assumed that recipients of restituted works would want to monetize them as quickly as possible.

But when it comes to sales, there are often real constraints behind it.

Lawyers have to be paid, sometimes there are communities of heirs who find it difficult to share the pictures.

Fear of the German reparators

The public will perhaps be even more surprised by this sentence from the Minister of State for Culture: "This means that all 14 works that were identified in connection with the art find as clearly confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution were restituted."

On the one hand, it is gratifying that the collection is not as poisoned as it was once thought.

On the other hand, it is incomprehensible why the federal government has always been giving the impression since the end of 2013 that it was a largely robbed collection.

Perhaps she wanted to justify the ongoing confiscation of 2012, for which there was no real legal reason.

It is also irritating how long it took to return the 14 works.

Works that soon became clear that they were looted art.

Even with the Spitzweg drawing, it was clear early on that it had belonged to the music publisher Henri Hinrichsen, who was murdered in Auschwitz.

In 2015, a member of the Hinrichsen family wrote to SPIEGEL, no, they haven't got the paper back yet, but that's all they want to say in public: "We definitely don't want to upset the authorities!" Germany was still spreading fear and horror.

Fog of compassion

In many of the 14 cases, the heirs themselves were old people, in some cases the claimants have died, while the responsible German authorities are still demanding more evidence and papers.

The first restitution of a picture from the Gurlitt Collection concerned a painting by Max Liebermann, "Two Riders on the Beach", painted in 1901, two brothers had identified it as the property of their great-uncle from Breslau.

Evidence was soon available, but it was put off, one of the two never saw the return.

Until his death in 2020, the other did not understand why the Germans had pulled out this picture at some point, but did not help him to find the rest of the family collection, which had once been confiscated by the Nazis.   

The Germans now want to appear as empathetic as possible, Minister of State for Culture Grütters emphasizes: "Behind each of these pictures is a human, tragic fate."

Such statements obscure with their compassionate style that the actions of this country in the matter of Gurlitt - and in matters of looted art as a whole - need to be dealt with.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-01-13

You may like

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.