A Swiss museum has reluctantly agreed to accept part of a billion-euro art bequest from the late Cornelius Gurlitt, a German recluse whose secret collection included masterpieces looted from their Jewish owners by the Nazis.

The family of a prominent Parisian art dealer is demanding that a Norwegian museum return a Henri Matisse painting seized by Nazis during the Second World War.

Thieves yesterday broke into a Rotterdam museum and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions of euro.

A stolen sketch by Dutch master Rembrandt has been found at a California church, about 20 miles from the luxury hotel lobby it was snatched from over the weekend, authorities have said.