Few Answers on True Owners of Art Found in Gurlitt Trove

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After a two-year, nearly $2 million investigation, a German government task force set up to determine ownership of an art collection amassed by a Nazi-era dealer announced Thursday that it had identified the rightful owners of just five of the works whose provenance was in doubt.

The drawings and paintings were confiscated in 2012 from a Munich apartment owned by Cornelius Gurlitt — whose father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had collected them — as part of a tax evasion investigation. The authorities kept the find a secret until November 2013, when it was revealed by a German newsmagazine.

Of the more than 1,200 works in the collection, the task force identified 276 pieces that were either created by members of the Gurlitt family or were made after 1945. An additional 231 works were found to have belonged to German museums when they were removed by the Nazis as part of the “Degenerate Art” operation.

The task force was able to clearly identify ownership of only five of the remaining works of art, prompting criticism from Jewish groups, among others, about the pace and intensity of the effort.

German officials defended the results at a news conference here on Thursday at the end of the task force’s two-year mission, saying that important research had been conducted, and that the task force’s success should not be measured in the number of returned works.

Monika Grütters, the culture minister, conceded that the work of the task force had not been completed as swiftly as initially hoped, and that the results were not those many had expected.

“The results are much better than this number indicates,” Ms. Grütters said, adding that it was important to determine which works had been legally obtained.

She praised the task force’s international cooperation as singular in provenance research, as well as the involvement of both art and general historians, as well as legal experts.

“One lesson we have learned will stay with us, namely that speed and thoroughness are not both possible in provenance research,” Ms. Grütters said.

Excluding the five works deemed worthy of restitution to the heirs of their Jewish owners, almost 500 require further research. That task will be carried out by a new agency, the German Lost Art Foundation. An additional 186 works that were found at a second home Mr. Gurlitt owned, in Salzburg, Austria, will also be scrutinized.

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