Interview With A Phantom: Cornelius Gurlitt Shares His Secrets

Man Behind The Nazi-Looted Art Trove Finally Speaks Out
BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 18: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Quality from source). This handout photo provided by the Lost Art Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg, the German government agency charged with documenting and ascertaining the origins of artworks appropriated by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945, shows the painting 'Couple' by Hans Christoph on November 18, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. The work is among 25 shown on the Lost Art website and among the approximately 1,400 works German authorities confiscated from the Munich residence of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer who worked for the Nazis. (Photo Courtesy Lost Art Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg)
BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 18: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Quality from source). This handout photo provided by the Lost Art Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg, the German government agency charged with documenting and ascertaining the origins of artworks appropriated by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945, shows the painting 'Couple' by Hans Christoph on November 18, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. The work is among 25 shown on the Lost Art website and among the approximately 1,400 works German authorities confiscated from the Munich residence of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer who worked for the Nazis. (Photo Courtesy Lost Art Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg)

No one had ever seen Cornelius Gurlitt in his nightshirt before, until a day in February 2012, when they broke the lock and marched in -- the strangers, as he calls them -- the customs investigators and officials with the Augsburg public prosecutor's office.

His apartment was his world. But now these strangers had entered. There were many of them, perhaps 30, and they didn't go away. Instead, they spent four days wrapping up his life in blankets, packing it into cardboard boxes and carrying it away -- well over 1,000 works of art.

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