Billion in stolen art found in Schwabing

style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; font-weight: 600;"Wed 6th Nov, 2013

Munich has received its fair share of bumps and criticisms, being the city where Hilter began his early Nazi career. Germany as a whole has repaid Billions to the victims of WWII but nothing could have prepared anyone for the horde of over 1500 Art pieces that was discovered at the home of Cornelius Gurlitt in the Schwabing district of Munich in the spring 2011.

When, police conducting a routine search on a train from Switzerland to Munich, discovered Gurlitt carrying a large amount of cash. After further investigations, police discovered Gurlitt had no record of ever having paid taxes which led to police obtaining a search warrant and raiding his home. The collection valued at approximately 1.35 Billion euros was found amongst rotting cans of food dating back to the 1980's.
This raises the question: what will happen to all this art? Some people think it should be returned to its rightful owners. While others think it should all be given to museums. After all, isn't that the reason art is created in the first place? To be viewed and enjoyed by all?

An e-mailer summed up what seems to be a popular consensus, "The art belongs to its former owners - but if they cannot be found I hope they will be given to the public and placed in museums so that everyone can admire and enjoy them."


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