Police and art experts are checking 22 artworks found in southwest
Germany which may be linked to the huge hoard of art treasures seized
in Munich.
The regional broadcaster SWR says most of the 22 works are valuable
paintings. Some may have been looted by the Nazis.
On Saturday Paris Match magazine published a photo of a man alleged to
be Cornelius Gurlitt, the Munich collector. He was spotted in Munich.
So far 25 of the Munich works have been listed on the website www.lostart.de.
Gurlitt connection: On Saturday police in Baden-Wuerttemberg removed
22 artworks from a flat in Kornwestheim, a town near Stuttgart. They
are now being examined at a secret location.
The flat belongs to an 80-year-old man, who is a brother-in-law of
Cornelius Gurlitt and, like him, a former art collector.
Four of the paintings are believed to have been acquired from Mr
Gurlitt, SWR says.
Stuttgart police said the 80-year-old was not suspected of any crime
and had himself contacted the police to get his collection stored in a
safe place. The intense media interest in the Gurlitt case had made
him anxious, SWR reported.
More than 1,400 artworks were found at the Munich flat of Mr Gurlitt
in March 2012, but only last week did investigators reveal that they
included previously unknown masterpieces.
The total value has been estimated at about 1bn euros (£846m; $1.35bn).
German authorities showed images of some of the works, by famous
artists such as Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Max Liebermann and Henri
Matisse. But they have not yet published a full list and the officials
stressed that a painstaking investigation is now under way.
Some of the Munich works may have been stolen from Jews and kept in
Nazi collections during 1933-1945. – BBC News
