Death of collector who hoarded art looted by Nazis

Cornelius Gurlitt, a reclusive German whose long-secret hoard of well over 1,000 artworks triggered an international uproar over the fate of art looted by the Nazis, died yesterday, aged 81.

Gurlitt was thrust into the spotlight in November when authorities, following a report by German magazine Focus, disclosed they had seized 1,280 works by artists, that included Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, from his Munich apartment more than a year earlier. They discovered the works while investigating a tax case after Gurlitt aroused their suspicions during a routine customs check on a Zurich-Munich train in 2010. Some of the pieces, by Matisse, Chagall and Otto Dix, were previously unknown.

Gurlitt inherited the paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures from his father, Hildebrand, a dealer who traded in works confiscated by the Nazis.

German authorities, facing criticism for keeping the hoard secret, put together a taskforce to speed their identification; they said at least 458 of the works may have been stolen by Nazis.

Separately, Gurlitt secured 238 artworks at his dilapidated house in Salzburg, Austria, which weren’t seized by authorities.