Looted artwork returned to heirs

GERMAN authorities have handed over all 14 works from the art trove accumulated by late collector Cornelius Gurlitt that so far were proven to have been looted under Nazi rule, the government said.

Piano Playing, a drawing by Carl Spitzweg, was handed over to Christie’s auction house on Tuesday at the request of the heirs of its rightful owner, Henri Hinrichsen, the government said.

The work was seized from Hinrichsen, a Jewish music publisher, in 1939. The following year, it was bought by Gurlitt’s father, Hildebrand Gurlitt – an art dealer who traded in works confiscated by the Nazis. Hinrichsen was killed at the Auschwitz death camp in 1942.

The reclusive Cornelius Gurlitt, who died in 2014, had hidden away more than 1,200 works in his Munich apartment and a further 250 or so at a property in Salzburg, Austria. He inherited much of the collection from his father.

Authorities first stumbled on the art while investigating a tax case in 2012. Gurlitt’s will had bequeathed the works to a Swiss museum, the Kunstmuseum in Berne. A German governmentbacked foundation has been working with the museum to ensure that any pieces looted from Jewish owners are returned to their heirs.