The last piece of Nazi-looted art discovered among the collection of a German pensioner has been returned to its rightful owners eight years after it was found.
Carl Spitzweg s drawing Playing the Piano was handed over to Christie s auction house on Tuesday at the request of the heirs of its rightful owner, Henri Hinrichsen, after being found in an apartment belonging to pensioner Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012.
The work had been seized from Jewish music publisher Hinrichsen in 1939, two years before he was killed at Auschwitz, and inherited by Gurlitt from his father.
German authorities have now handed over 14 works from a £1billion collection found at two homes belonging to Gurlitt after it was proven they were plundered by Nazis.
A Drawing Believed to Be the Final Nazi-Looted Artwork in the Gurlitt Collection Has Been Returned to Its Rightful Owners
The provenance of some 1,000 artworks from the notorious collection still remain unknown.
January 13, 2021
A restorer works on a masterpiece from the collection Cornelius Gurlitt. Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images.
Germany has restituted the 14th and what is believed to be final work of art from the notorious trove of Cornelius Gurlitt, whose art-dealer father, Hildebrand, worked with the Nazis beginning in 1938 to acquire works under duress from Jewish collectors.
The latest artwork to be returned to the heirs of its rightful owner is a circa 1840 drawing by German artist Carl Spitzweg titled