While it is morally reprehensible to keep the art if he was aware of the circumstances of it changing owners (him being 12 years old at the end of world war 2), the law is on his side. There’s a statute of limitations on this kind of crime of a few decades in Germany. That time has passed in the early nineties AFAIK, so his treatment by German justice is actually on the brink of illegality. Is want the at in the hands of its rightful owners but not in a way that laws get bent just because of one unfortunate case. Law is the foundation of our society, there can’t be any exceptions from one moment to the next - nulla poena, sine legis.
The government has to approach him and work out a deal for the art. But they stigmatize him (it’s easy in this case) and try to just take it, because it’s the right thing to do, yet it’s unlawful.
Let’s start with the legal issue here…
The statutory limitation period has run out, so there is no basis in law to prosecute him for whatever reason.
On moral grounds, there may be a case, if the owner, or one of his direct descendents are still living, but I have seen some great grand nephew who wants to have ‘his painting’ back.
Legally the paintings belong to the collector, morally I would appreciate it if they would be shown in an art gallery maybe with a history attached to each painting that was bought under shady (but lawful at the time) circumstances.
A couple of quotes out of the NYT article for others to discuss
He inherited the works from his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, an exuberant Nazi-era art dealer, partly Jewish, who at times worked in the service of the Third Reich but also counted artists disliked by the Nazis among his friends.
and
The collection was so valuable and, perhaps, its provenance so tainted by the family’s association with the Nazis, that the desire to keep it secure compelled Mr. Gurlitt to live a strange, Gollum-like existence behind permanently drawn blinds, obscuring not only the works but also the man himself.
and
Mr. Gurlitt told Der Spiegel that he knew a lot about the origins of the works but wanted to keep that information to himself, like a private love affair. “People only see banknotes between these papers with paint, unfortunately,” he said.
I’m sure that the original owners of those paintings also hoped that everything would be cleared up quickly, so they could finally have their pictures back.
