A cache of 1,500 works of art -- including masterpieces by Picasso , Matisse and Chagall -- confiscated by the Nazis and missing for more than 70 years has been found in Germany , according to German media reports . The huge haul of paintings , estimated to be worth more than $ 1 billion , was discovered in an apartment in Munich in the spring of 2011 during a raid by Bavarian tax authorities , but its existence has only just come to light with an article in the German news magazine Focus . The collection is said to include works by Modernist masters Paul Klee , Oskar Kokoschka , Franz Marc , Max Beckmann , Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , many of which had been believed destroyed during World War II . Focus reports that the pictures were found when customs police raided a rundown apartment in the Schwabing district of Munich during an investigation into suspected tax evasion . The recovered paintings are said to have been kept in storage in a secure warehouse in the city ever since . German authorities have refused to confirm or deny any details relating to the discovery . Polish art stolen by Nazis repatriated . `` The German government is supporting the state prosecution in Augsburg by supplying advice from experts in the field of so-called degenerate art and the entire issue of Nazi-looted art , '' government spokesman Steffen Seibert said . `` But we can not comment any of the issues of the ongoing investigation . '' The full extent of the find is expected to be revealed by art historian Meike Hoffmann , an expert on `` degenerate art '' from the Freie Universitaet Berlin , at a news conference in Augsburg on Tuesday . Thousands of pieces of art labeled `` degenerate '' by the Nazis were looted from private collections and confiscated from galleries during the 1930s and 1940s ; other works were stolen from Jewish families or sold for a fraction of their true value as the owners tried to flee the country . Many paintings remain missing decades later . Julian Radcliffe , chairman of the Art Loss Register , said the discovery was `` very encouraging in some ways , but there are tens of thousands of these artworks still under dispute , so this is really just a drop in the ocean . '' `` This case shows the extent of organised art robbery which occurred in museums and private collections , '' said Ruediger Mahlo , representative of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany . `` Private collections were almost all in Jewish possession . '' Feds seize Nazi-plundered painting . The relatives of many of those families whose art collections were stolen are now waiting to find out whether their property forms part of the Munich treasure trove -- and whether they can get it back . `` We demand that the paintings be handed back to their original owners , '' Mahlo said . `` It can not be that like in this case , a sort of moral handling of stolen goods is continued . '' Radcliffe said improvements in technology and wider public knowledge about works looted by the Nazis mean the tide is turning against those in possession of stolen art . `` The risk/reward is going against them . It may have been far easier to do it decades ago , but as more databases are set up and there is an increasing focus on the Holocaust , there is less chance for anyone taking part in such transactions . '' But art experts have questioned why it has taken so long for the Munich discovery to be revealed . Christopher Marinello of Art Recovery International said the details of the paintings should have been published online as soon as they were found `` so that the entire world could stake a claim . '' `` We were told they they were worried about the number of claimants that would come forward , but two years is a long time to wait , '' he said . `` People died . Claimants of this era are in their 80s and 90s , and records are disappearing . '' `` There seems to be a problem with transparency here , '' Mahlo said . `` The case was discovered in 2011 ; in 2013 , it became public . The question is , what happened during those two years ? ''
Reports : Thousands works of art found in raid by Nazis tax authorities . Paintings by Klee , Augsburg , Chagall , Klee believed to have been looted by German . Experts call for works to be returned to the families of those they were stolen from .