The works found in Cornelius Gurlitt's home, which could be worth several million dollars, include an early version of Munch's woodcut work Melancholy, and his portrait of Swedish writer August Strindberg. 

 

 

"I'd have been surprised if you hadn't found some works by Munch among these images," Morten Zondag at Oslo art dealers Kaare Berntsen told NRK. "His art was classified as 'degenerate' by the Nazis, and was removed from German museums and collections in the 30s." 

 

Germany's Nazi government of the 1930s emptied Germany's museums of 82 Munch works,  along with works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse. 

 

Gurlitt's father Hildebrand was one of four art dealers appointed to find buyers for the art works, making a fortune selling them on internationally. As the situation for Jewish collectors in Nazi Germany worsened, the stream of works which went through his hands included the contents of fire sales by Jewish businessmen, and then works seized by the Nazis. 

 

In February 2012, German police seized the artworks in a raid n Gurlitt's apartment. A German government task force is now working through the paintings, prints and drawings, seeking to establish which were purchased legally, and which were works seized or extorted from their owners. 

 

After the Nazi occupation of Norway in 1940, Munch lived in fear of having his own personal collection seized.