A stash of art uncovered in a Munich apartment in 2012 included works that were previously unknown, among them a self-portrait by Otto Dix and a Chagall gouache, said Meike Hoffmann, an art historian investigating the hoard.

The cache of 1,400 paintings, lithographs, drawings and prints was discovered by authorities investigating Cornelius Gurlitt on suspicion of tax evasion. It included works by Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Max Liebermann, said Siegfried Kloeble of the Munich customs authorities.

Some works were seized by the Nazis from German museums -- others may have been sold by Jewish families under duress, Hoffmann said. Reinhard Nemetz, the chief prosecutor in Augsburg, said authorities will not publish a list online.

“The legal situation of the artworks is very complex,” Nemetz said at a news conference today in Augsburg. “We do not want a situation where there are 10 claims for one painting.”

The Nazis seized more than 20,000 modern artworks that they saw as contrary to Aryan ideals from German museums. They also stole hundreds of thousands of artworks from Jewish families.

“Without a list, we cannot do anything,” said David Rowland of Rowland & Petroff in New York, who represents the heirs of Curt Glaser, an art critic and collector. “They should put a list on the Internet with photos.”

Some of the art dates back as far as the 16th century. It was stored correctly and in good condition, Hoffmann said. It also includes a long-lost Courbet painting that was auctioned in 1949 and a Franz Marc landscape with horses. A Matisse is known to have been seized in France from the Rosenberg family, Hoffmann said.

Cornelius Gurlitt was held by officials investigating possible money laundering during a random check on a train from Switzerland to Munich. The investigation led to his Munich home in 2012, Kloeble said.

The Munich apartment is where Gurlitt kept the artworks handed down by his father, Hildebrand, according to Focus magazine, which first reported the story.

Based in Hamburg before World War II, Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895-1956), was one of just four art dealers permitted by the Nazi authorities to sell artworks seized as “degenerate” from German museums from the end of 1938 to 1941.

Though they were instructed to sell them abroad for hard currency, the four passed many on to fellow German dealers or kept them for themselves, according to the Free University’s “Degenerate Art” website.

Muse highlights include Martin Gayford on European art, Greg Evans on U.S. television, Amanda Gordon’s Scene Last Night and Philip Boroff on U.S. theater. (Bloomberg)