A landscape painting by Claude Monet is the latest work to be recovered from the stash hidden by Cornelius Gurlitt in his flat in Munich.
In March 2012, Gurlitt was found in possession of 1379 artworks worth millions of pounds and suspected of being looted by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, with the cache seized by the District Prosecutor of Augsburg.
On Friday, investigators said that the Monet recently uncovered had been smuggled into Gurlitt’s hospital room in a suitcase, and left there when he returned home in May, where he died shortly afterwards. The painting was only recovered after the hospital returned it to the executor of Gurlitt’s estate.
The artwork was identified as a Monet by a special taskforce of art historians assigned to determine which of the pieces have been looted. So far, the group have identified a portrait by Henri Matisse and an equestrian scene by Max Liebermann as stolen works.
Gurlitt is believed to have inherited the large cache of artworks from his father, Hildebrand, who worked under Joseph Goebbels for the Nazi Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to market so-called “degenerate” artworks to buyers abroad.
