Lawyers for Cornelius Gurlitt, 81, filed a complaint last week against a 2011 order by a southern German court to search his Munich flat and seize around 1,400 long-lost works, his spokesman said.
Gurlitt’s legal petition aims for the seizure order to be lifted and the return of the artworks, which included long-lost masterpieces by Matisse and Chagall, Stephan Holzinger said in a statement.
Germany has been embroiled in a fresh debate over Nazi-looted art since news broke in November of the discovery of the works, some of which are believed to have been stolen or extorted from Jewish owners under Hitler.
Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer, is mindful of the “moral dimension” of the case and ready to talk to possible claimants but contests the grounds for the swoop on the works, his lawyers and spokesman said.
The order was based on suspicions of tax fraud against Gurlitt, which “in the defense’s view is not justified,” the statement said. It added that seizing the whole collection breached “the principle of proportionality.”
The public prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Augsburg confirmed receipt of Gurlitt’s legal complaint. “We will make a statement on it,” spokesman Matthias Nickolai said, without specifying when.
Gurlitt feels “a strong moral responsibility” but in no way took part in any possibly questionable acts to acquire the artworks, his spokesman said, stressing that the octogenarian wanted an amicable resolution with any possible private claimants.
One of his lawyers, Tido Park, added that in criminal proceedings, legal and moral aspects must be strictly separated “and a criminal procedure must not be used for settling restitution claims.”
Another Gurlitt lawyer, Derek Setz, was quoted as saying that given the great public interest and political debate, the legal team had a “justified concern about the due process of this procedure.”
Gurlitt and his team said Monday on their new website that three percent of the collection was suspected to be Nazi-looted art and that four claimants had so far come forward, as well as a couple of people who had asked for information.
Gurlitt’s father Hildebrand acquired the paintings in the 1930s and 1940s, when he worked as an art dealer tasked by the Nazis with selling stolen works as well as art the Hitler regime deemed “degenerate.”
Last week, another 60-odd artworks, including pieces by Monet and Renoir, came to light at Gurlitt’s Salzburg house and were immediately placed in safe keeping by Gurlitt’s team.
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