Patricia Cohen has the news from Germany that some basic sorting has been done with the Munich Hoard works to determine that 380 were not looted works. At least, they were not taken from families but confiscated from German museums:
According to prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, who have so far been solely responsible for dealing with the works, some 380 are believed to have been legally taken from museums by the Nazis under the “degenerate art” law of 1938. The ownership histories of another 590 works must be examined to determine whether they were acquired from Jewish owners under duress.
Bloomberg’s Catherine Hickley updates the fast-moving story with these new pieces of information including the new website for locating works.
The government said late yesterday it would put the artworks it suspects were plundered on the website lostart.de, and began by posting 25, including works by Otto Dix and Eugene Delacroix. Jewish groups and representatives of heirs seeking lost art have urged Germany to publish a list of the works. […]
The government will set up a task force of at least six provenance researchers led by Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, according to the joint statement from the Culture Ministry, Finance Ministry and the Bavarian government. […]
Among the first artworks posted on lostart.de are a Delacroix drawing, “Moorish Conversation on a Terrace;” an 1840 drawing of musicians by Carl Spitzweg with the previous owner listed as Henri Hinrichsen, a Leipzig music publisher; a Dix portrait of a woman that once belonged to the Littmann family, and a drawing by Otto Griebel previously owned by a Dresden lawyer, Fritz Salo Glaser.
Germany to Form Task Force on Looted Art (NYTimes.com)
Germany Says 590 Artworks in Munich Haul May Be Nazi Loot – Bloomberg.