Discovery of Nazi-plundered art offers glimpse 'into a dark story'

By Carlo Angerer and Erin McClam, NBC News

MUNICH — Hundreds of works of art by Picasso, Matisse and other masters of the 20th century — seized by the Nazis, lost for decades and now worth more than $1 billion — were reportedly found among piles of rotting groceries in a German apartment.

The find would be among the largest in the worldwide effort, underway since the end of World War II, to recover masterpieces plundered by the Nazis from Jews inside Germany and from elsewhere in Europe, considered the largest art heist in history.

Experts will appraise the works — paintings, drawings and prints — but the German news magazine Focus, which broke the story, put the value at more than 1 billion euros, or $1.3 billion.

German authorities have not released photos of the cache, which also includes works by Marc Chagall and Paul Klee. Investigators found it two years ago, after a man taking the train from Zurich to Munich was found carrying a large but legal amount of cash.

The man was the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was a modern art specialist in the early 20th century. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, recruited Gurlitt to raise cash for the Third Reich by selling art that had been deemed degenerate by Adolf Hitler.

When Hildebrand Gurlitt died, in a traffic accident in 1956, his son inherited the art, apparently unaware of its origin.

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