Germany wants list of suspect Nazi art published

11/6/2013

Augsburg state prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz speaks to media during a news conference in Augsburg, southern Germany, Tuesday, Nov.5, 2013, on the art found in Munich. A hoard of more than 1,400 art works found last year at a Munich apartment includes previously unknown pieces by artists including Marc Chagall, German investigators said Tuesday, adding that they face a hugely complicated task to establish where the art came from. Nemetz said that investigators have turned up "concrete evidence" at least some works were seized by the Nazis from their owners or classed as "degenerate." (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN — The German government says it favors releasing information on artworks seized from a Munich apartment that may have been taken decades earlier from people persecuted by the Nazis.

But prosecutors investigating the surprising tax case have so far declined to provide even a partial list of the 1,400 artworks found in a private apartment in early 2012, citing their ongoing probe.

Jewish groups have called for the works to be made public immediately so the families of Holocaust victims could locate and recover art that was taken from them.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters today that “the government is in favor of publishing information about those artworks where there are already indications that they may have been confiscated from people persecuted by the Nazis.”