The son of infamous German art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who helped Adolf Hitler hoard art looted from Jews during the Holocaust, says he’s now willing to return works his father had acquired to the heirs of their owners.
Attorney Christoph Edel, a court-appointed legal guardian for the 81-year-old Cornelius Gurlitt, issued a statement on Gurlitt’s website this week saying that Gurlitt has told him “if the works … should be justifiably suspected of being Nazi-looted art, please give them back to their Jewish owners.”
Added Edel: “Let there be no doubt that we will comply with the instructions of our client.”
It’s a stronger commitment than Gurlitt previously had made. An informational web site set up last month by his representatives at first said he was willing to reach “fair and equitable solutions” with heirs who could produce proof of looting.
Edel said that one work from the trove German authorities seized from Gurlitt in 2012 is about to be returned, and that “discussions with other claimants have been constructive as well, and we expect to return additional works in the coming weeks.”
News reports from Europe said the Henri Matisse painting “Seated Woman” will be returned to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg, a prominent French Jewish art dealer.
German authorities raided Gurlitt’s home near Munich in 2012, seizing nearly 1,300 artworks in what was later said to be an investigation of possible tax evasion.
A government-authorized task force has identified 458 pieces as possibly stolen from Jews, and an additional 380 as so-called degenerate art that the Nazis ordered removed from German museums and sold because they were deemed to reflect a Jewish or Communist influence, or failed to meet the Third Reich’s aesthetic ideals.
The Gurlitt web site revealed this week that he has 238 additional pieces.
