Hildebrand Gurlitt & Cornelius Gurlitt

Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt was born 28 December 1932, to the art historian Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895 – 1956) and the dancer Helene Gurlitt (née Hanke, 1895 – 1968) in Hamburg. After his father’s art dealership was seriously damaged by air raids at the end of 1941, the family moved into a house in Dresden owned by Hildebrand Gurlitt’s parents. After their house was destroyed during the bombing of Dresden on 14 February 1945, the family found refuge in Aschbach (Bavaria). While Hildebrand Gurlitt was placed under house arrest by the Allies and interrogated several times regarding his activities as an art dealer during the Third Reich, Cornelius and his sister attended the Odenwald School. The Gurlitt family moved to Dusseldorf in 1948. After high school, Cornelius Gurlitt began studying art history, music history, and philosophy in Cologne, while training to be a restorer at the Dusseldorf Kunstmuseum.

Although he never concluded his studies, he did complete his training as a restorer. He worked in that capacity for the Dusseldorf Kunstmuseum from 1959 to 1960. Other professional stages in his life are not known.

Cornelius Gurlitt probably supported himself in the following years through the sale of artworks inherited from his father. He lived a secluded life in Munich and Salzburg, until discovery of his art-possessions.
 

In September 2010, the Augsburg public prosecutor opened an investigation of Cornelius Gurlitt under suspicion of tax-evasion, following a customs-inspection in a train from Zurich to Munich. In spring 2012, authorities searched his Munich apartment and seized the discovered works of art. The «Schwabing Art Trove» was not made public until November 2013, in an article published in «Focus» magazine. The resulting media attention seriously affected Cornelius Gurlitt’s health.

After negotiations, Cornelius Gurlitt agreed in April 2104 to the investigation of his art possessions, as formalized in an agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Bavaria. He is one of very few private persons not only to allow provenance research on his collection, but also to accept the German interpretation of the Washington Principles (1998), and with it, the restitution of Nazi-looted artworks.

Cornelius Gurlitt died on 6 May 2014, aged 81, in Munich. He named the Kunstmuseum Bern Foundation as sole beneficiary in his testament.
 

 
The art historian Hildebrand Gurlitt established himself in the 1920s as a promoter of Modernists in the German museums-landscape. Because of this, he became a target of the National Socialists. As early as 1930, he lost his position as director of the Zwickau Museum, due to National-Socialist agitation.

When the National-Socialist Party came to power in 1933, he was again subject to political pressure as the head of the Hamburger Kunstverein (Hamburg Art Association), and only avoided being fired through his resignation. Gurlitt became an art dealer and in 1935 opened his own gallery in Hamburg, the Kunstkabinett Dr. H. Gurlitt.

The art-market under National Socialism was closely tied to the persecution of the Jewish population. Starting in 1933, the regime successively removed the means of earning a livelihood and forced Jewish art dealers out of work. In this manner, artworks became available at low prices, to the profit of dealers such as Gurlitt. In 1938, Gurlitt significantly expanded his business arena in response to the “Degenerate Art” campaign. The German Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda commissioned him with the sale abroad of modernist artworks confiscated from German museums.

Following the expansion of the National Socialistic sphere of influence, Gurlitt was able to increase his business-dealings. During German occupation of Western Europe in 1940, he was active in the art-markets of the Netherlands, Belgium, and especially France. Starting in 1943, after being designated with special powers, he began purchasing artworks for Hitler’s planned “Fuehrer Museum” in Linz.

Hildebrand Gurlitt’s rise as an art dealer parallels the increasing radicalization of the Nazi persecution-politics and exemplifies the connection between the art-trade and the plundering of the European Jewish populace.

After the end of the Second World War (1939 - 1945), Hildebrand Gurlitt went unpunished as a former “Mitläufer” (sympathizer) for his involvement in art theft during the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany. From 1948 until his death in November 1956, he was the director of the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen (Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia) in Dusseldorf.