Germany to Comb Museums for Nazi-Looted Art

[steve2470]

http://on.wsj.com/1iMB0VJ

BERLIN—Germany will set up an independent center to comb museum collections for art looted by the Nazis, the country’s culture minister said, shortly before representatives for the son of an art dealer tied to Hitler disclosed another hidden cache of paintings.

The discovery of more unrecorded treasures, including paintings by Impressionist masters Monet, Renoir and Manet, was likely to add fuel to the firestorm of criticism over Germany’s record in dealing with potentially looted art.

Representatives of Cornelius Gurlitt, whose vast collection was seized in 2012 by Munich prosecutors, revealed that he had dozens more works stashed outside the country in a second home in Salzburg, Austria.

Several families of Holocaust victims have laid claims to some of the 1,400 works seized in Munich as part of a tax investigation. Among them are relatives of Anne Sinclair, the ex-wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who are claiming a Matisse portrait that experts say could fetch up to $20 million at auction.