In today’s issue of the german magazine DER SPIEGEL you can find an astonishing, sad story about a man, fallen out of time. He grew up during the Nazi era, son of a go-getting art dealer. When his father died (and later his mother), he inherited a treasure of a special kind: more than a 1000 original paintings and drawings by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann and the likes. These paintings became the love of his life. He stashed them in his flat in Munich and every night he would unpack his favorites and carefully look at them. He spoke to them like they were friends. For the next 50 years he would do little else. No TV. No telephone. No friends. No wife. No credit card. No passport. The last time he went to a cinema was in the 1960s. All there was were the paintings, some of the most vibrant and beautiful of their kind, and himself. What a life!
«I’m just a very quiet person» he said. «All I wanted to do was live with my pictures.» Until the police came and took them away. His name is Cornelius Gurlitt and he is right now the subject of worldwide media coverage. And, maybe, the last time-traveler on earth.