Cornelius Gurlitt (art collector)

Cornelius Gurlitt
Born	Cornelius Gurlitt (1932-12-28)December 28, 1932 Hamburg, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Art collector
Parents	Hildebrand Gurlitt Helene Gurlitt
Relatives	Cornelius Gurlitt (grandfather)

for Gurlitt's grandfather and namesake, see Cornelius Gurlitt (art historian)

for Gurlitt's great-uncle and namesake, see Cornelius Gurlitt (composer)

Cornelius Gurlitt (December 28, 1932) is a German art collector born in Hamburg. Cornelius Gurlitt's parents were the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt from well known Gurlitt family, and his wife Helene née Hanke. He grew up in the Dammtor district of Hamburg with his sister Renate, who was born there in 1935. His great-grandmother was Jewish, which caused his father be labeled as Jewish under Nazi race laws in the Volkszählung vom 17. Mai 1939, or so-called "German Minority Census" of 1939.

In the spring of 2012, German customs officials obtained a warrant to search the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt in the Schwabing district of Munich and discovered 1,406 works of art worth an estimated €1 billion. These works of art are alleged to have been stolen by the Nazis, and were later returned to the possession of Hildebrand Gurlitt. They were subsequently inherited by his son Cornelius. Whether his family has any knowledge of these allegedly stolen artworks is unknown, but extensive reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper state that Gurlitt lived "like a hermit" and refused entry to his apartment / art storage depot "even to close members of his family."

On 2013-November-11, the German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that they received a letter from Gurlitt telling them that "the name Gurlitt may not appear in your magazine." Gurlitt then told two reporters from the Paris Match, who confronted him in a Munich supermarket, that "Applause from the wrong side is the worst thing there is." Der Spiegel found this comment "puzzling."

See also

• 2012 Nazi loot discovery