1,500 masterpieces in Munich closet found in ‘Nazi Treasure’ raid

German authorities are investigating a huge art find reported to include hundreds of works seized by the Nazis and considered missing for decades, officials said Monday.

The discovery was first reported by Germany's Focus magazine in a cover story titled "Nazi Treasure," which claimed Sunday that a cache of 1,500 works —including pieces by such masters as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall — was found in a Munich apartment in early 2011.

The apartment's owner, Cornelius Gurlitt, a retiree, reportedly lived like a hermit in the seven-floor building, rarely interacting with his neighbors.  

Focus reported the masterpieces' estimated worth at about 1 billion euros (about $1.35 billion).

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government was informed "several months ago" about the case. He said authorities in Berlin were supplying "advice from experts in the field of so-called degenerate art and the area of Nazi-looted art."

Seibert referred further questions to prosecutors in the southern city of Augsburg, where spokesman Matthias Nickolai said he could give no details before a scheduled press conference Tuesday morning.

Focus reported that some of the artworks discovered may have been seized by the Nazis from Jewish owners or bought from them under duress.

But art historians say the works could mainly consist of what the Nazis considered "degenerate" art that did not necessarily belong to Jews.

These were largely modern or abstract works by artists that Adolf Hitler's regime believed to be a corrupting influence on the German people. Their "deviant" characteristics were often attributed to Jewish corruption, and thousands of such works were seized.

"We don't know how many of the 1,500 works are 'degenerate' works or looted by the Nazis," said Christoph Zuschlag, an expert on "degenerate" art at the University of Koblenz. "So we need to examine each piece individually."

He cautioned against overestimating the value of the collection before it is thoroughly assessed. "We need to see whether these were originals or prints," he told The Associated Press.

He noted that of the 21,000 pieces of "degenerate" art seized from German museums in or shortly after 1937, two-thirds were prints, and only one-third were originals.

Focus' revelation comes amid an effort across Europe to retrieve and return masterpieces stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

In late October, the Dutch Museum Association launched a website to publicize information about looted artwork and assist heirs in filing claims.

E. Randol Schoenberg, a prominent lawyer representing families whose art and other property were stolen by Nazis during the Holocaust, in October commented on Al Jazeera that works like the London-based National Gallery's unfinished portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl, confiscated and sold during the war, should be returned to their rightful owners.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press