{"id":70829,"date":"2014-05-06T17:30:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T21:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=70829"},"modified":"2014-05-06T17:33:09","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T21:33:09","slug":"degenerate-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/06\/degenerate-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Degenerate Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"o-LASAR-SEGALL-900\"<\/a>

Lasar Segall, Eternal Wanderers<\/i>, 1919, oil on canvas; on display at the Neue Galerie.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cornelius Gurlitt, identified in obituaries as a \u201cNazi-era art hoarder,\u201d died this morning in Munich of heart trouble. Gurlitt\u2019s cache of more than 1,400 important modern works, inherited from his art-dealer father\u2014including pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Manet, and Renoir\u2014was discovered in 2012. It was not made public until November 2013. Although classified as \u201csecond-degree mixed-race Jewish,\u201d Hildebrand Gurlitt was one of three dealers given official sanction by Hitler to peddle \u201cdegenerate art\u201d in other countries, with the profits going to Germany. And although Gurlitt was required to return a number of works to their former owners, the majority of the collection is thought to have been acquired \u201clegally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Bloomberg<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

Isolated from the outside world, Gurlitt stopped watching television in 1963, booked hotel rooms months in advance by post when he had to travel, and never used the Internet, according to Spiegel<\/em> magazine. His collection was discovered in a raid after authorities became suspicious when he was found carrying 9,000 euros during a random search at the Swiss border in 2010. He was returning from a visit to Bern to sell some artwork there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is unclear what will happen to the collection, although art historians will apparently continue to investigate the works\u2019 provenance and post images of them<\/a>. <\/p>\n

By chance, New York\u2019s Neue Galerie is currently hosting a wildly popular show titled \u201cDegenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937<\/a>,\u201d which attempts to replicate, in part, the famous traveling exhibition that the Nazis sent across Germany and Austria, as both cautionary lesson and moneymaking venture. The images assembled by the Neue\u2014by Kirschner, Grosz, Klee,\u00a0Kokoschka, and many more\u2014represent a triumph of curation and international cooperation. But Gurlitt\u2019s cache might have changed and broadened the scope of the show considerably\u2014a thought that\u2019s enough to give you chills.<\/p>\n

When I saw the show at the Neue, it was packed, with lines out the door. But it was collegial; we were all so eager to have a brush with darkness, to be part of its routing, and then to have a Klimtorte in the magnificent restaurant, which is modeled on a Viennese coffee house.\u00a0A woman who entered ahead of me said that she and her sister had planned their vacation from San Francisco specifically to see the show.<\/p>\n

Gurlitt was apparently confused by the uproar caused by his collection. He said in 2013, \u201cWhat do these people want from me? I\u2019m just a very quiet person. All I wanted to do was live with my pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cornelius Gurlitt, identified in obituaries as a \u201cNazi-era art hoarder,\u201d died this morning in Munich of heart trouble. Gurlitt\u2019s cache of more than 1,400 important modern works, inherited from his art-dealer father\u2014including pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Manet, and Renoir\u2014was discovered in 2012. It was not made public until November 2013. Although classified as \u201csecond-degree mixed-race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[35,13800,10588,511],"class_list":["post-70829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-art","tag-cornelius-gurlitt","tag-nazis","tag-neue-gallerie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDegenerate Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on the \u201cNazi-era art hoarder\u201d Cornelius Gurlitt and Neue Galerie\u2019s \u201cDegenerate Art\u201d exhibition in New York.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/06\/degenerate-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Degenerate Art by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 6, 2014 \u2013 Cornelius Gurlitt, identified in obituaries as a \u201cNazi-era art hoarder,\u201d died this morning in Munich of heart trouble. 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