BERLIN — Cornelius Gurlitt, who for decades hoarded a collection of modern European masterpieces by artists such as Chagall, Matisse, Otto Dix and Max Beckmann before it was discovered in 2012 in his Munich apartment, has died, his spokesman said. He was 81.
Mr. Gurlitt died on Tuesday in his Munich apartment, where he had been transferred following heart surgery and several weeks that he spent in the hospital, Stephan Holzinger, his spokesman said. Mr. Gurlitt had requested to return to his home, where he was cared for by a team of nurses, Mr. Holzinger said.
Authorities in the south German state of Bavaria seized around 1! ,280 artworks in February 2012 from Mr. Gurlitt's home as part of an investigation into possible tax evasion. However, the seizure was not made public until last November when the German newsweekly Focus broke the story, triggering an international outcry over the failure of German authorities to make the startling find public.
Mr. Gurlitt's father, Hildebrand, apparently built up the collection in the 1930s and 1940s when he acted as one of only four dealers allowed to buy and sell modernist works reviled by the Nazis, many of which had been owned by Jewish families. The heirs of those owners were among the most vocal in calling for the collection to be made public.
German authorities responded by forming a task force to identify the works and att! empting to trace their previous ownership, posting several hun! dred on the government's public database for lost or stolen art, www.lostart.de.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to the works, which are still held by the task force. Under an agreement reached earlier this year with Mr. Gurlitt, the team of international experts was granted the right to continue its provenance research.
Mr. Gulitt had been under the legal guardianship of Christoph Edel, who was appointed this year by a Munich court to handle his health, financial and legal affairs.
"With the death of Cornelius Gurlitt end both the court-ordered care, as well as the investigation," Mr. Holzinger said in a statement refer! ing to the tax evasion inquiry.
It was not clear if Mr. Gurlitt had drawn up a will that would stipulate what would happen to his collection.
Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/arts/design/cornelius-gurlitt-son-of-nazi-era-art-dealer-has-died.html
