Posted on 11/03/2013 9:53:59 AM PST by Uncle Chip
The collection has meant that Gurlitt has managed to survive his entire life without any official bank account, pension or insurance.
When stopped by customs, extensive checks found that he was not registered with the police - mandatory in Germany - the tax authorities or social services. He drew no pension and had no health insurance.
‘He was a man who didn’t exist,’ said one official.
***** He was living off the grid
***** He survived by selling off the art piece by pice
Amazing —
I’d look it up, but man, these football games are the real thing — the freakin’ BILLS are beating the prev. undefeated Chiefs, and the 1-7 Vikings are beating the Cowgirls *in Dallas*. Also the Titans scored first against, uh, hmm, their favored opponent.
Can’t your family put a claim in for the property?
I’ll venture to guess that the Nazi-gold-guarding Swiss kicked out some cash for these over the years; personally, I’m glad this guy saved all these works, and I’m also glad he finally got caught. It’s mysterious that he didn’t figure out a way to just move the whole works out of the country. The real task will be to track down the ones already sold into private collections, but the German tax collectors will probably manage it.
> in a routine search on a train from Switzerland to Germany, his son was caught with 9,000 euros cash earned from an illicit art deal... Experts claim most were acquired from Jews in exchange for escape
> He was suspected of tax evasion, and investigators obtained a search warrant for his home in Munich... The younger Mr Gurlitt had kept the works in darkened rooms and sold the occasional painting when he needed money, Focus reports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24794970
> Josef Goebbels used the elder Gurlitt to sell part of the 20,000 Degenerate Art collection which was put on display in Munich in 1937. Goebbels later appointed him to be the director of a super museum the Nazis hoped to build in Linz, Austria. After the war, Gurlitt was allowed to continue his business. He told allied investigators that the artworks were destroyed when the family mansion was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden in Febuary 1945. Meike Hoffmann, a Berlin-based art dealer has been asked to help track down the potential owners of the works. At least 200 pieces are thought to be on lists of missing treasures.
- Obama will want “a piece of the action...” £1billion art collection seized by Nazis found in shabby Munich apartment ...
Fascinating! I hope a full book treatment - with plenty of illustrations! - will come out eventually and appear in my local library.
No kidding. The Islamists won’t hesitate to destroy them.
Calling Neil Caffrey and Mozzie.
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