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Gurlitt: Status Report

Cornelius Gurlitt famously hid a vast collection of art works which he had inherited from his father, an art dealer servicing the Nazi regime. The current exhibition at Gropius-Bau features 200 of the paintings found in his Munich apartment.

Image for Gurlitt: Status Report

Photo by Bernd Lammel, 2018 © Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH

Cornelius Gurlitt famously hid a vast collection of artworks which he had inherited from his father, an art dealer servicing the Nazi regime. The current exhibition at Gropius-Bau features 200 of the paintings and objects found in his Munich apartment in 2012, including an astonishing range of eras and styles – from Nolde to Dürer, Monet, Kirchner and Rodin. For most of them, the ownership history is unclear, and they are more than likely to have been confiscated under the campaign against ‘degenerate’ art in Germany in 1937/38. Where possible, the text-heavy exhibition details the stories of previous owners, mainly Jewish art collectors and dealers. It also provides an insight into the ongoing state-funded Gurlitt Provenance Research Project, while archive material, original documents, letters and historical photographs eerily convey the tone of the time. The recurrent caption “Currently no indications of being looted art” also casts its shadow over the astonishing works: only days prior to the Gropius opening, four of them were identified as looted and the descendants of their rightful owners notified. Luckily for us, they generously agreed to keep the works in the show.

Through Jan 7