An art collector at the centre of a row over £1billion of masterpieces believed to be stolen by Nazi's during World War II is the son of a dealer who pillaged remorselessly on behalf of Adolf Hitler, it has been revealed. Customs officials in Germany seized the paintings from Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, from his flat in Munich but he is fighting to get them back saying they were collected legitimately. It has now been revealed that his father Hildebrand was involved in the systematic looting of Jews across the Third Reich, according to Der Spiegel. Paintings were seized from the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, pictured left.  It is alleged his father Hildebrand Gurlitt, pictured right, was involved in the systematic looting of Jews . A vast portion of this loot was . discovered by the 'Monuments Men' section of the US Army, tasked with . finding the stolen art of Europe and restoring it to its rightful . owners. The . Monuments Men moved into the Bavarian village of Aschbach in Bavaria in . April 1945 and arrested the local Nazi party leader Baron Gerhard von . Pölnitz who lived in the local castle along with art dealer Karl . Haberstock and Hildebrand Gurlitt whose house in Dresden had been . destroyed in the Allied bombing in February of that year. A . note from a Monuments Men team member found in an archive detailed the . astonishing artworks found in the castle: 'Rooms containing paintings, . tapestries, statues, valuable furniture and documents from the . belongings of two notorious German art dealers were found in the . castle.' Another . reads: 'A large room on the upper floor with 34 boxes, two packages . containing carpets, eight packages of books … one room on the ground . floor containing an additional 13 boxes owned by Mr Gurlitt.' Most of . these boxes contained pictures and drawings. Pictured: . The Munich apartment where officials discovered the hidden paintings which could be worth £1bn . Gurlitt, they wrote, was 'an art collector from Hamburg with connections within high-level Nazi circles. He acted on behalf of other Nazi officials and made many trips to France, from where he brought home art collections. There is reason to believe that these private art collections consist of looted art from other countries.' Gurlitt was described as an 'art dealer to the Führer.' Cornelius Gurlitt, who would go on to . inherit many of these treasures, was 12 at the time and living in the . castle with his father.  Hildebrand was quizzed by the Americans in June . 1945 and they noted he seemed 'extremely nervous' as if he was not . telling them the truth. 'Sitting . Woman' by Henri Matisse and a formerly unknown painting of French . artist Marc Chagall were both discovered among the £1bn artwork that is . believed to have been plundered from Jews during WWII. 'It . was during those days that Gurlitt, the 'art dealer to the Führer,' reinvented himself: as a victim of the Nazis, a man who had saved . precious artworks from destruction and someone who had never done . anything malicious,' said Spiegel. Gurlitt . said: 'I had to decide between the war and the work for museums. I . never bought a picture that wasn't offered to me voluntarily. As I . heard, laws were also enacted in France so that Jewish art collections . could be confiscated. But I never saw it with my own eyes.' Loot: American soldiers are pictured discovering one of Hildebrandt Gurlitt's enormous art stash during the war. Although they suspected him of dealing in Nazi art, they let him go . Among the paintings that the Americans returned to Hildebrandt in 1950 and which have turned up in the Munich trove are Max Liebermann's Two Riders On The Beach (above) The Americans were more interested in Haberstock.  He later complained that they had underestimated Gurlitt's role during the Nazi period. In a 1949 letter to a government official, he wrote: 'I was able to prove everything, including, for example, that I was not the main supplier for Linz, whereas Mr Voss, during his short term in office, bought about 3,000 artworks and took over confiscated collections together with his main buyer, Dr Hildebrand Gurlitt.'  Linz was to the be the city where Hitler intended to build the world's biggest art museum after the war. Hermann Voss, a museum director from . Wiesbaden, ran the art-buying programme for the Linz project from 1943 . onward.  Gurlitt worked for Hitler through Voss, who served as a . middleman. One . painting he bought at a rocket bottom price was by the Bulgarian painter . Jules Pascin called 'The Studio of the Painter Grossmann.' In . fact, Gurlitt bought the Pascin in 1935 for 600 Reichsmark, much less . than it was worth, from a Jew called Julius Ferdinand Wollf, who would . later commit suicide.  After originally confiscating it the Americans . gave it back to Gurlit in 1950. Under . Hitler, Gurlitt was tasked to sell modern art - 'Degenerate Art' it was . called by Hitler - abroad to bring in hard currency for the regime. One man he fleeced out of drawings by Adolf Menzel was Erns Julius . Wolffson, a Jewish doctor in Hamburg. Control: Hitler only liked classical art and held exhibitions of modern 'dissident' pieces to show German people what not to like. Many of those paintings that appeared in those shows have been found in Gurlitt's collection . Spiegel also discovered Gurlitt senior struck up a relationship with Cornelius Müller Hofstede, a  Nazi in German Silesia, now Poland, appointed  to appraise the collections of persecuted Jews to sell on the open market. 'It was also Müller Hofstede who . obtained the Max Liebermann painting 'Two Riders on the Beach' for . Gurlitt. A few weeks ago, the work was one of the first pictures from . the confiscated Gurlitt collection in Munich to be shown at a press . conference. The Nazis had confiscated it from sugar refiner David . Friedmann, who died in 1942. Friedmann's daughter was killed in a . concentration camp in 1943,' said Spiegel. Gurlitt . also bought a painting at a knock down price from a Jewish couple . called the Kaims from Breslau who were later sent to the Warsaw Ghetto . and then to the gas chambers at Treblinka. The . magazine also discovered he bought millions of marks worth of paintings . under dubious circumstances from collectors in France.  In 1950, . Gurlitt's art was restored to him and he also made off with treasures he . had hidden in an old water mill. Spiegel . said of him: 'There are many examples of works that Gurlitt acquired . under questionable circumstances. There are also a number of pictures . hanging in German museums today, from Hanover to Wiesbaden, that were . bought from Gurlitt. There are even pictures that Gurlitt bought for . Hitler's museum in Linz, which, because of their unclear origins, became . the property of the state.' Sold: The Lion Tamer, by Max Beckmann, was sold by Gurlitt before the collection was discovered for £750,000 .
Customs officials in Germany seized the paintings from Cornelius Gurlitt, 80 .
It is now alleged his father Hildebrand was involved in the systematic looting of Jews across the Third Reich .
But Cornelius claims the paintings were collected legitimately .
An art collector at the centre of a row over £1billion of masterpieces believed to be stolen by Nazi's during World War II is the son of a dealer who pillaged remorselessly on behalf of Adolf Hitler, it has been revealed. Customs officials in Germany seized the paintings from Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, from his flat in Munich but he is fighting to get them back saying they were collected legitimately. It has now been revealed that his father Hildebrand was involved in the systematic looting of Jews across the Third Reich, according to Der Spiegel. Paintings were seized from the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, pictured left.  It is alleged his father Hildebrand Gurlitt, pictured right, was involved in the systematic looting of Jews . A vast portion of this loot was . discovered by the 'Monuments Men' section of the US Army, tasked with . finding the stolen art of Europe and restoring it to its rightful . owners. The . Monuments Men moved into the Bavarian village of Aschbach in Bavaria in . April 1945 and arrested the local Nazi party leader Baron Gerhard von . Pölnitz who lived in the local castle along with art dealer Karl . Haberstock and Hildebrand Gurlitt whose house in Dresden had been . destroyed in the Allied bombing in February of that year. A . note from a Monuments Men team member found in an archive detailed the . astonishing artworks found in the castle: 'Rooms containing paintings, . tapestries, statues, valuable furniture and documents from the . belongings of two notorious German art dealers were found in the . castle.' Another . reads: 'A large room on the upper floor with 34 boxes, two packages . containing carpets, eight packages of books … one room on the ground . floor containing an additional 13 boxes owned by Mr Gurlitt.' Most of . these boxes contained pictures and drawings. Pictured: . The Munich apartment where officials discovered the hidden paintings which could be worth £1bn . Gurlitt, they wrote, was 'an art collector from Hamburg with connections within high-level Nazi circles. He acted on behalf of other Nazi officials and made many trips to France, from where he brought home art collections. There is reason to believe that these private art collections consist of looted art from other countries.' Gurlitt was described as an 'art dealer to the Führer.' Cornelius Gurlitt, who would go on to . inherit many of these treasures, was 12 at the time and living in the . castle with his father.  Hildebrand was quizzed by the Americans in June . 1945 and they noted he seemed 'extremely nervous' as if he was not . telling them the truth. 'Sitting . Woman' by Henri Matisse and a formerly unknown painting of French . artist Marc Chagall were both discovered among the £1bn artwork that is . believed to have been plundered from Jews during WWII. 'It . was during those days that Gurlitt, the 'art dealer to the Führer,' reinvented himself: as a victim of the Nazis, a man who had saved . precious artworks from destruction and someone who had never done . anything malicious,' said Spiegel. Gurlitt . said: 'I had to decide between the war and the work for museums. I . never bought a picture that wasn't offered to me voluntarily. As I . heard, laws were also enacted in France so that Jewish art collections . could be confiscated. But I never saw it with my own eyes.' Loot: American soldiers are pictured discovering one of Hildebrandt Gurlitt's enormous art stash during the war. Although they suspected him of dealing in Nazi art, they let him go . Among the paintings that the Americans returned to Hildebrandt in 1950 and which have turned up in the Munich trove are Max Liebermann's Two Riders On The Beach (above) The Americans were more interested in Haberstock.  He later complained that they had underestimated Gurlitt's role during the Nazi period. In a 1949 letter to a government official, he wrote: 'I was able to prove everything, including, for example, that I was not the main supplier for Linz, whereas Mr Voss, during his short term in office, bought about 3,000 artworks and took over confiscated collections together with his main buyer, Dr Hildebrand Gurlitt.'  Linz was to the be the city where Hitler intended to build the world's biggest art museum after the war. Hermann Voss, a museum director from . Wiesbaden, ran the art-buying programme for the Linz project from 1943 . onward.  Gurlitt worked for Hitler through Voss, who served as a . middleman. One . painting he bought at a rocket bottom price was by the Bulgarian painter . Jules Pascin called 'The Studio of the Painter Grossmann.' In . fact, Gurlitt bought the Pascin in 1935 for 600 Reichsmark, much less . than it was worth, from a Jew called Julius Ferdinand Wollf, who would . later commit suicide.  After originally confiscating it the Americans . gave it back to Gurlit in 1950. Under . Hitler, Gurlitt was tasked to sell modern art - 'Degenerate Art' it was . called by Hitler - abroad to bring in hard currency for the regime. One man he fleeced out of drawings by Adolf Menzel was Erns Julius . Wolffson, a Jewish doctor in Hamburg. Control: Hitler only liked classical art and held exhibitions of modern 'dissident' pieces to show German people what not to like. Many of those paintings that appeared in those shows have been found in Gurlitt's collection . Spiegel also discovered Gurlitt senior struck up a relationship with Cornelius Müller Hofstede, a Nazi in German Silesia, now Poland, appointed  to appraise the collections of persecuted Jews to sell on the open market. 'It was also Müller Hofstede who . obtained the Max Liebermann painting 'Two Riders on the Beach' for . Gurlitt. A few weeks ago, the work was one of the first pictures from . the confiscated Gurlitt collection in Munich to be shown at a press . conference. The Nazis had confiscated it from sugar refiner David . Friedmann, who died in 1942. Friedmann's daughter was killed in a . concentration camp in 1943,' said Spiegel. Gurlitt . also bought a painting at a knock down price from a Jewish couple . called the Kaims from Breslau who were later sent to the Warsaw Ghetto . and then to the gas chambers at Treblinka. The . magazine also discovered he bought millions of marks worth of paintings . under dubious circumstances from collectors in France.  In 1950, . Gurlitt's art was restored to him and he also made off with treasures he . had hidden in an old water mill. Spiegel . said of him: 'There are many examples of works that Gurlitt acquired . under questionable circumstances. There are also a number of pictures . hanging in German museums today, from Hanover to Wiesbaden, that were . bought from Gurlitt. There are even pictures that Gurlitt bought for . Hitler's museum in Linz, which, because of their unclear origins, became . the property of the state.' Sold: The Lion Tamer, by Max Beckmann, was sold by Gurlitt before the collection was discovered for £750,000 .
officials in Germany seized the paintings from Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, from his flat in Munich were collected legitimately. It has now been revealed that his father Hildebrand was involved in the systematic looting of Jews across the 80, pictured left.  It is alleged his father