Nazi-Era Trove of 'Degenerate Art' Discovered

A stash of sculptures that survived both the Nazis and Allied firebombing has been found by workers digging a new subway line in Berlin. The sculptures, all from early 20th-century artists, were on a list of "degenerate" artworks shunned by the Nazis for having Jewish or otherwise non-German influences and were believed lost forever, Der Spiegel reports. Two of the sculptors were Jewish, and one died in the Holocaust.

Investigators speculate that a tax clerk who kept offices in the building that once stood at the site bought the artworks to save them from destruction. The clerk and his wife protected Jews from the Nazis, helping many to emigrate and sheltering one in their home. Archeologists believe the clerk may have collected many more "degenerate" artworks, but any wooden sculptures or oil paintings would have been destroyed by fire.
(More Berlin stories.)