The Gurlitt collection has been an expensive bequest for the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern
Keystone
Accepting the art collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of one of Hitler’s art dealers, has so far cost the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern around CHF800,000 ($850,000). Instead of a profit of CHF300,000 for 2014, it was almost CHF530,000 in the minus.
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Museum director Matthias Frehner confirmed media reports on Friday that the museum was CHF524,129 in the red for the last financial year. However, he said the expenses had been predictable, adding that the deficit would be covered by the museum’s financial reserves.
An article in the Berner Zeitung said the museum had spent CHF830,207 on legal and art-historical clarifications during the past financial year.
The annual report said the Gurlitt collection would prove its financial worth in the figures for 2015.
Masterpieces
The museum decided in November 2014 to accept the 1,200 paintings, drawings and sketches which had been bequeathed to it by reclusive German citizen Cornelius Gurlitt.
In 2010, Gurlitt had been randomly stopped on a train from Switzerland and found to be carrying thousands of euros. The German authorities, suspecting he was a tax dodger, entered his Munich flat and found it crammed with masterpieces by artists such as Picasso, Renoir and Matisse.
When Gurlitt died in May 2014, he named the – very surprised – Museum of Fine Arts in Bern sole heir of his collection.
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Bern museum accepts controversial art hoard
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The Museum of Fine Arts in Bern has said it will accept contentious works of art, stashed away until recently by Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of one of Hitler’s art dealers. Gurlitt died in May and in his will named the museum sole heir to his collection. Germany will continue to carry out provenance research…
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The Museum of Fine Arts will not only inherit works of modern masters, such as Picasso, Chagall and Matisse, but may also face restitution claims from the heirs of Nazi-era Jewish collectors. Speaking to Swiss public radio, the president of the Kunstmuseum’s board said the museum had had no contact yet with the German authorities.…
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The author of a book on the Gurlitt collection talks about the “web of deceit and silence” surrounding it plus the legal and moral situation.
The Gurlitt art collection no one – and everyone – wants
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Bern’s Museum of Fine Arts had planned to announce on November 26 whether it will accept the collection. It has now said the announcement will happen two days earlier – and in Berlin. The development supports the rumour that the museum will accept the collection, but leave it in Germany to allow for provenance research…
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The collection includes paintings, sketches and prints, all handed down to Gurlitt from his art dealer father. It is valued at an estimated CHF1.23 billion ($1.4 billion). More than 200 of the paintings of inestimable value were the object of international search warrants issued long ago. (Pictures: AFP/Staatsanwaltschaft Augsburg)
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