"The resolution comes months after the public first learned of the more than 1,280 works — including those by major artists such as Picasso, Chagall and Gauguin — held by Mr. Gurlitt. They were seized by Augsburg prosecutors as part of a tax evasion investigation. When the German news media broke the story of their existence last November, it triggered outrage around the world."
Responding to intense international criticism over how it had handled the art, the German government appointed a task force to investigate their provenance with an aim to return looted works to their rightful owners. But questions lingered over what would happen to the collection once it was released to Mr. Gurlitt, if he is cleared of the tax evasion charges. Legal experts also raised questions over whether the state had been justified in confiscating the collection in the first place.
Mr. Gurlitt, 81, who lived a reclusive life seemingly dedicated to defending the modern art collection amassed by his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, during the Nazis’ reign, had initially insisted that all the art be returned to him. He declared in his only interview, with the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, that he would not give any of them up. (read more)
