Oh, yeah, about that Monet in the other house...
February 11, 2014 9:21 PM   Subscribe

Works by Monet, Picasso, and Renoir are among the 60 additional works found in the Salzburg home of Cornelius Gurlitt, who made headlines last year when it was revealed that he had more than 1400 works stashed in his Munich apartment that had been lost or stolen during WWII. This comes just weeks after Gurlitt indicated for the first time that he is now willing to consider returning works that are determined to have been looted by the Nazis. Determining rightful ownership of the works is an ongoing and complicated process. (Previously)
posted by scody (19 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I just saw Monumnets Men like yesterday so I'm having THE BIGGEST western art history nerd freak out right now.
posted by The Whelk at 9:39 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


The need for authoritarian regimes in the past to attempt to edit mankind's collective heritage in order to further their own ends should stand as a warning for anyone living in any present era of any present now and into the future.

Whether that will actually be heeded in any effective way remains to be seen.
posted by hippybear at 9:42 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


I just saw Monumnets Men like yesterday so I'm having THE BIGGEST western art history nerd freak out right now.

Same here. I got all in a lather thinking about the Amber Room & its possible fates on the way home from the theater.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:49 PM on February 11, 2014 [2 favorites]


So Cornelius Gurlitt was a Flying Hellfish?
posted by ShutterBun at 9:50 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


This comes just weeks after Gurlitt indicated for the first time that he is now willing to consider returning works that are determined to have been looted by the Nazis.

What? Why isn't it just confiscated from him?

Incidentally, that WSJ article is pay-walled.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:02 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


It is? Dang, sorry about that. I clicked right through to it. Maybe I have a secret WSJ subscription that I'm not aware of?
posted by scody at 10:04 PM on February 11, 2014


Well, there's some sort of log in thing. It could be region-locked - I'm in Australia.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:06 PM on February 11, 2014


Holy crap!
I read an interview with Gurlitt and I didn't think he was all all there. A bit of a dreamy guy. I'm glad to hear that he's jake with the idea of returning the works that were stolen.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:10 PM on February 11, 2014


WSJ articles are regularly paywalled. It might be that you clicked through from something like Google News, which seems to subvert paywalls at the NYT and such.
posted by hippybear at 10:10 PM on February 11, 2014


As soon as I read the title I thought, "Yay! New George Clooney movie!" and I got SO EXCITED.

And then I got kind of sad about the state of my boring life because I thought, "Yay! New George Clooney movie!"

And then I remembered it's winter doldrums time in New England and dammit we take our pleasures where we can as there's 97 feet of snow outside.
posted by kinetic at 3:37 AM on February 12, 2014 [3 favorites]


As for Gurlitt's "willingness", the WSJ says that it is needed because the statute of limitations has expired.
posted by Thing at 4:32 AM on February 12, 2014


At this point, the most sensible thing for the police to do seems to be searching through every single house, apartment, storage shed, empty lot or anyplace else associated with either Gurlitt --- father or son --- to see what else might be hidden.

Because yeah, I'll bet there's another stash or three out there.
posted by easily confused at 5:15 AM on February 12, 2014


cue John Williams Orchestra
posted by furtive at 5:53 AM on February 12, 2014


I've just been watching The Rape of Europa on Netflix.


The stolen art is pretty far down on the list of things to be mad at the Nazis about, but it still makes me fucking furious.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:21 AM on February 12, 2014 [5 favorites]


Art belongs to everybody and the best method of preservation is dissemination via different media. The powers that be should digitally photograph the works and make them available as a free screensaver to the general public. Then they should keep the original in a museum or Art school.
posted by Renoroc at 7:40 AM on February 12, 2014


tl;dr - old man is about to kick it, wants to redeem his name?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:22 AM on February 12, 2014


File this under "kind of terrible but fairly amusing": https://twitter.com/CGurlitt
posted by mr. manager at 12:51 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, that is promising news. Thanks for posting this, scody.
posted by homunculus at 12:17 AM on February 13, 2014




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