Again, since i have to do everything myself..

Switzerland has long been associated with the issue of Nazi-era art, serving as both a market for illicit sales and a hiding place for looted works. The most notable recent example involves the Gurlitt collection, a massive trove discovered in Germany and Austria that was subsequently bequeathed to a Swiss museum. 

The Gurlitt Collection

In 2012, German authorities discovered nearly 1,500 artworks in the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, one of Adolf Hitler's official art dealers. An additional 238 works were later found in his home in Salzburg, Austria. The collection included works by masters like Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and Chagall, many of which were either stolen from Jewish families or confiscated as "degenerate art" by the Nazis. 

Before his death in 2014, Gurlitt named the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland as his sole heir. The museum initially hesitated, calling the bequest a "poisoned chalice" due to the legal and moral complexities. Ultimately, the museum accepted the collection, with the condition that any work identified as having been looted would be returned to its rightful owners. 

The museum, in cooperation with German authorities, has since worked on provenance research, leading to the restitution of several works to the heirs of their original owners. Exhibitions of the collection have been held in Bern, Bonn, Berlin, and Jerusalem to raise public awareness and facilitate claims