(Source: CNTV.cn)

Some 1,500 pieces of art by great artists have been found in Germany. They were considered "degenerate" by the Nazis in the late 1930s and early 40s and were looted by the regime during their rule.

A film based on a true story of lost and found - "The Monuments Men" - follows a second World War platoon tasked with the job of relocating artworks stolen by the Nazis in Germany in order to return them to their rightful owners.

In 2011, around 1,500 pieces of art were found in a Munich apartment, including works by masters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Emil Nolde.

The works were considered "degenerate" by the Nazis in the late 1930s and early 40s and were looted by the regime.

During the Nazi era, around 20,000 works of modern art were looted from Jewish dealers, or confiscated because the regime considered them degenerate. Many remain missing today.

On Sunday, Germany's Focus magazine reported the discovery, saying the owner of the flat where these works are found had inherited the works from his father Hildebrand, a former museum director commissioned by the Nazis to sell the paintings abroad. However, the man had instead chosen to keep some of them.

Works by masters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Emil Nolde are among the stash.

A government spokesman did not explain why state authorities in Augsburg had waited so long before making the discovery public, if the magazine is correct in reporting the works were found almost three years ago.

"The German government is supporting the state prosecution in Augsburg and taking advice from experts in the field of so-called 'degenerate art' and Nazi-looted art," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

The magazine reported the works found could be worth up to a billion euros, but their discovery may result in a large number of legal claims from the descendants of their former owners.