Germans defend art hoard operation
German authorities have defended their handling of the discovery in a Munich apartment of more than 1,400 works of art possibly looted by the Nazis as they provided the first glimpse of some of the works in the hoard. At a packed press conference in Augsburg, Bavaria, prosecutors and customs officials briefly dimmed the lights to give journalists a glimpse of photographs of some of the seized works, which include a previously unknown self-portrait of Otto Dix and another work by Henri Matisse. They rejected criticism that they should have revealed their discovery earlier, arguing that they were following proper investigation procedures and wished to properly examine the hoard first. In total police have seized 1,406 works by artists including Max Beckmann, Max Liebermann, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marc Chagall, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Oskar Kokoschka. Three works by Pablo Picasso were discovered – a sketch and two printed graphics – as well as a sketch by Canaletto. Paintings, drawings, lithographs and prints are all represented and some 121 framed art works were retrieved from the small apartment. The works are in good condition and were kept in a cupboard and in drawers as one might in the storage room of a museum, officials said. They were not exposed to direct sunlight and the quality of the colours had been preserved. "When you stand before these works that were for a long time believed lost or destroyed and you see them in a relatively good condition, then that delivers an incredible feeling of joy," said Meike Hoffmann, an art historian at the Free University in Berlin whom prosecutors have asked to examine the artistic treasures. "The pictures are of an extraordinary quality and have a fantastically high academic value. Many of the works were until now completely unknown," Ms Hoffmann said. Prosecutors and customs officials declined to provide an estimate of how much the art collection might be worth, indicating the Focus magazine estimate of €1bn did not come from them. They said the works would not be made available for viewing on the internet, nor would they hold an exhibition as the investigation was ongoing. They described the investigation and legal situation as "highly complex" and declined to speculate about who the owners of any of the works might be. Prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz said the paintings were first discovered in March 2012 – not in early 2011 as was originally reported – when police raided the apartment of pensioner Cornelius Gurlitt. Customs officials had found Mr Gurlitt in possession of a large amount of cash when travelling by train to Switzerland, which prompted further investigation. Mr Gurlitt’s father Hildebrand was a well-known art dealer and was permitted by the Nazi authorities to sell artworks seized as "degenerate" from German museums. Due to the scale of the find, it took the authorities three days to transport the art works to a secure storage site. Prosecutors and customs officials are not in contact with Mr Gurlitt and his whereabouts is unknown. However, officials said there were indications at least some works were seized from museums by the Nazis or were taken under duress from their original owners. Many of the works are not modern pieces viewed as "degenerate" by the Nazis but date from as early as the 16th century, including a copper engraving of the crucifixion by Albrecht Dürer. Officials said they hoped that those who believed they were robbed of art works during the Nazi period would come forward but acknowledged that the process of identifying the legitimate owners of all the works would be very difficult. Mr Nemetz said the article in Focus magazine on Saturday had made their job a lot more difficult – not least because they expected to be swamped with enquiries about the paintings and the highly valuable works must be securely stored. Ms Hoffmann said there were no indications that any of the works were forgeries. Masters of art fail to lure top bids at Christie’sSales fell well short of expectations during the opening hours of New York’s autumn auction season on Monday night despite initially lofty predictions, writes Elizabeth Paton. One-third of the lots in Christie’s much-feted Jan Krugier sale of high-profile paintings, drawings and sculptures failed to attract buyers. The 62 works in the estate of the late art dealer included pieces by celebrated artists such as Klee, Miro and Kandinsky. The most expensive item, Picasso’s 1964 ‘Tete’ sculpture, had been expected to sell for $25m-$35m but failed to attract a buyer. Bids were sluggish throughout the evening, with the eventual $92.5m tally a fraction of the forecast $157.9m-$224.5m. The disappointing results were attributed to excessively high estimates and the overexposure of several major works on the auction house circuit. A day-long sale of lower priced items followed on Tuesday.The pressure is now on for Christie’s and its rival Sotheby’s as the sale kicked off a fortnight-long round of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions in the city.