Franz Marc's Pferde in Landschaft, one of the artworks discovered in Cornelius Gurlitt's Munich apartment in 2012. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Switzerland’s Kunstmuseum Bern will receive the collection of art hoarded for years by Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi art dealer.

The art, worth more than $1 billion combined, was first discovered in February 2012 when German police raided Gurlitt’s Munich apartment as part of an investigation into possible tax evasion. The collection of more than 1,000 pieces included works by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. Gurlitt received the art from his father, who had been a buyer and seller of the so-called “degenerate art” on Hitler’s orders. Gurlitt died last May.

According to an agreement between the Swiss museum and the German government, a German task force will continue to investigate each piece of art to see if it was looted, and from whom. Any art stolen from Jews will be returned to their descendants, and the entire collection will remain in Germany until the investigation of the works is complete, the Associated Press reported.