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Gurlitt And Nazi Art Thief

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Gurlitt And Nazi Art Thief
During World War II, the greatest art thief in history to occur; Nazi’s looted 650,000 works, worth billions, from Europe. About 2 years ago in November, German authorities found 1,280 paintings, drawings, and prints in the Munich apartment of a haunted white haired recluse. The found paintings, drawings and prints are said to be worth more than a billion dollars. September 2010, Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt was traveling on the train from Zurich to Munich for business at an art gallery. Gurlitt was found with 9,000 euros after an officer searched him due to Gurlitt behaving nervously. Gurlitt returned to his seat as he had done nothing illegal, but the officer was suspicious and flagged Gurlitt for further investigation. Through investigation, …show more content…
The chief prosecutor of the investigation held a press conference the day after and issued a carefully worded press release, but it was too late. The damage was done and Germany had an international image crisis on its hands. Cornelius Gurlitt has not been charged with ay crime due to the fact the warrant did not cover the seizure of the paintings. However, Gurlitt who was almost invisible before news broke about seizure, is now a celebrity. The government has since posted 458 works on a website and there have been many visits which led the site to crash. Art historians have been hired to trace the provinces of the art works. In February 2014, 60 more pieces were found in Gurlitt’s Salzburg house. Gurlitt asked for the works to be investigated to determine if any had been stolen; initial evaluation suggested that none had been stolen. Gurlitt’s cousin said he wasn’t in it for the money, if he was he would have sold the works long ago. He truly loved the art works, he admired them. In my opinion, I think the pieces of art that were found should be put on display. They should be put on display for everyone to be able to enjoy and admire them. I don't think they should be split up and put into different museums around the world. They should stay close to where they were made and put into one

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