Cornelius Gurlitt in Munich in November.CreditBestimage/Paris Match/Fameflynet

Cornelius Gurlitt, the German recluse whocaptured the art world’s attention last fall after it was revealed that he had kept hidden for decades a collection of 19th- and 20th-century European masterworks amassed by his father under the Nazis in his Munich apartment, died on Tuesday at his home in Munich. He was 81.

His spokesman, Stephan Holzinger, confirmed the death.

Mr. Gurlitt died without known heirs, leaving behind a tangle of questions about what will become of the art, some of it in the custody of the German government, some of it still in his possession and some of it subject to restitution claims.

Outrage flared in November after the German newsweekly Focus broke the story of Mr. Gurlitt’s collection and the authorities’ failure to reveal the existence of approximately 1,280 paintings and drawings — by Chagall, Picasso, Matisse, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann and others — that had been confiscated from his apartment. Some of the works were unknown at the time, having never been entered in international art catalogs.

Matthias Henkel, a spokesman for a task force formed by German authorities to help investigate the provenance of the collection, said Tuesday that its work would go on since the moral obligation to clarify history remains.

Mr. Holzinger said it would be “up to a court to determine whether there is a valid will or contract of inheritance.” Under Bavarian law, if there was no such contract, a court will be appointed to decide who, if anyone, could inherit Mr. Gurlitt’s property.

The artworks were seized in a tax evasion investigation in February 2012 from the apartment where Mr. Gurlitt had lived quietly for decades, occasionally selling a painting but otherwise hoarding a collection assembled by his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, one of four dealers allowed under the Nazis to buy and sell the modern, or “degenerate,” art they officially so despised....Continue Reading

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