Cousin Had Challenged His Capacity to Make a Will Shortly Before 2014 Death
After a two-year legal battle, the Oberlandesgericht in Munich has upheld the dismissal of Uta Werner’s challenge to the will made by Cornelius Gurlitt in 2014 that designated the Kunstmuseum Bern as his heir, including the bequest of his controversial painting collection. Less than six months after it was revealed in November 2013 that the Bavarian authorities had seized 1,280 objects from his Schwabing home in Munich, Gurlitt wrote a will that designated that his entire collection would go to the Swiss museum. Barring some extraordinary appeal, the bequest will now be final and the collection will go to Switzerland. While lifting considerable uncertainty about the fate of the collection as a whole, this development does not address the lack of clarity about the process by which the objects that are suspected of having been looted by the Nazis will be examined or returned.
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Topics:
Bayern,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Nazi-looted art in Munich,
SZ,
Uta Werner,
Nazi-looted art,
Oberlandesgericht,
Munich,
Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
Gurlitt,
NS Raubkunst,
Catrin Lorch,
Free State of Bavaria,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Washington Principles,
Jörg Häntzschel,
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB)
Even as we creep up on the anniversary of the theatrical announcement of an agreement between Bavaria, Germany, and the Kunstmuseum Bern concerning the bequest of Cornelius Gurlitt, the court challenge by Gurlitt’s family is by no means over. News came this week that the Munich court overseeing the appeal of the initial denial of the will challenge has requested an expert opinion concerning Gurlitt’s psychological state.
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Topics:
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Gurlitt Task Force,
Nazi-looted art,
Gurlitt Collection,
Amtsgericht,
Oberlandesgericht,
Munich,
Restitution,
World War II,
beschlagnahmte Kunst,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Raubkunst
After the restitution of the first two works of Nazi-looted art from the trove of works found in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, David Toren has announced his intention to auction his work, Two Riders on the Beach by Max Liebermann. Toren, now more than 90 years old, remembers the theft of the painting from his uncle David Friedmann in Breslau (now Wrocław). Toren is the only claimant to date to have filed litigation over the Gurlitt case. Sotheby’s will auction the work on June 24. Toren explained his motivation for the sale as follows:
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Topics:
Petra Willner,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Breslau,
Wrocław,
Zwei Reiter am Strand,
Uta Werner,
Max Liebermann,
Gurlitt Collection,
Two Riders on the Beach,
Verena Osgyan,
Oberlandesgericht,
Gurlitt,
Restitution,
David Toren,
World War II,
Mittelbayerische Zeitung,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Museums,
Berner Zeitung,
David Friedmann
