ArtsBeat | Gurlitt Art Trove Faces a New Legal Challenge
Gurlitt Art Trove Faces a New Legal Challenge
By Melissa Eddy
April 28, 2015 12:36 pm April 28, 2015 12:36 pm
Credit Peter Klaunzer/European Pressphoto Agency
BERLIN — A relative of Cornelius Gurlitt who claims she should inherit works from his vast art collection is appealing a Munich court's rejection of her legal challenge, again throwing open the fate of a trove that includes works by Matisse, Gauguin, Renoir and Otto Dix. Mr. Gurlitt had bequeathed his collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland, and the court ruled last month that the works should go there.
An attorney representing Uta Werner, a cousin of Mr. Gurlitt's who questioned the validity of his will on grounds that he was not of sound mind when he drew it up, confirmed Tuesday that she had filed the appeal. The court said in a statement that it would weigh the appeal and decide whether to rule on the challenge, or pass it on to a higher court.
Mr. Gurlitt, who died last May at 81, had devoted his life to hiding the collection of more than 1,000 paintings, sketches and watercolors amassed by his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, a Nazi-era art dealer.
Experts have so far determined that three works in the Gurlitt collection were looted from their Jewish owners by the Nazis. Last month the German government signed restitution agreements with the descendants of Paul Rosenberg and a nephew of David Friedmann. The Munich court said the dispute over the will would not affect those proceedings.
Nevertheless, Christopher A. Marinello, director of Art Recovery International, who represents the Rosenberg heirs, said he was still waiting for a painting by Matisse, "Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in Armchair," to be formally returned.
A version of this article appears in print on 04/29/2015, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: New Legal Challenge On Gurlitt Trove.
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