More Saga on the 1,500 Art Pieces

Over the past month in Germany, this lost art episode in Munich....with the 1,500 pieces of art supposedly taken by a private guy after the war....has been headline news.

The state art guys in Bavaria....basically sat on the art....for two years.  No one can really say for sure.....what was done over this period, other than identify the art and the original painter.  Beyond that?  It's questionable.

This past week....things twisted a bit more.  Legal experts sat down and examined German law and this case.

First, the eighty-year old guy who held the paintings....has documentation to show how the items were procured in the 1930s.  There's some evidence to say that Jews of standing in Germany.....needed quick cash to exit and race out of Germany....so they sold their paintings for less-than-market share.  Some of the 1,500 paintings are going to fall into the legit ownership situation.

Second, there's this German law which dictates that lost art of this type....is reported and then turned to an office in Berlin which specializes in this business for the federal state of Germany.  In this case, the Bavarian authorities just plain did not do this.  For whatever reason....whether knowledge or deceit......they just plain sat on the paintings.

Third, there's another law in Germany which allows for lost property to be returned to the original owners....but unlike French or Dutch law, there's a time limit.  That thirty-year period, has passed.  Some legal folks have commented to German newspapers.....that in a court of law.....taking the property away from the old guy may not pass the legal test required.

Fourth, the authorities have discovered that the old guy did report income made and profits.....all in Austria, where the sales were finalized over the years.  The German tax authorities will spend months...if not years.....defending their idea that all profits are German profits, but no one can be sure about this outcome.

Meanwhile, the old guy is indicating that he's still got a fight in him.....and he might just live long enough to reclaim the art.  Who inherits the paintings then? That would be a curious question but I doubt if he'd chat in public on that.

There's some hints in the German news that this ought to all lead to someone that is a guardian over the paintings.....agreeable to the old guy and the federal German government (not the Bavarian folks).

An ending in the near future?  I wouldn't count on that.  A number of federal and state folks all have different opinions, along with the German tax office, the customs office, and Jewish families who believe ownership is a thing to be discussed in a public forum.  The fat lady, as we Americans tend to refer to.....has yet to sing.