captioning funded by cbs and ford >> stahl: it's rare for anyone to get this close to a minuteman iii nuclear missile, one of the most powerful weapons on the planet. but "60 minutes" was invited deep below ground to meet the missileers... where is the button? >> stahl: ...who are responsible for safeguarding them... >> ma'am, there is no button. >> stahl: there's no button? >> there's no button. >> that's it right there. >> stahl: ...and would ultimately launch the deadliest option in time of war. if, by accident or deliberate act, one of those missiles was launched, is there a way to bring it back? >> we can only launch with direction from the president of the united states. there's no way to recall it or disarm the warhead that's on the missile. once they're gone, they're gone.

>> safer: hildebrand gurlitt was one of hitler's favorite art dealers. and as the fuhrer was accumulating power, he was accumulating thousands of art works, many plundered from jews and museums. when gurlitt died, his reclusive son cornelius inherited them. did you have any idea he has so many paintings in that apartment? >> i tell you what-- nobody had any idea about this. >> masters like matisse, chagall, and otto dix worth more than a billion dollars today. so, who do these masterpieces belong to now? that's our story tonight. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm leslie stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." i still struggled to get going, even get through the day. so i was honest with my doctor.

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>> pelley: the last time many of us thought about our nation's big land-based nuclear missiles was probably during the cold war. but today, there are nearly 450 of these giant minuteman iiis, as they're called, tucked away

in underground silos, ready to launch on the president's command. they're part of a so-called "nuclear triad" that includes submarines and bombers. but it's the land-based leg of the triad that's been getting all the attention lately, and not the kind of attention the top brass wants. the entire air force chain of command of a missile base responsible for one-third of our land-based missiles was removed last march because of a scandal involving drugs and cheating on tests. as lesley stahl first asked after that scandal broke, what's going on? why so much turmoil in the missile corps? who's minding the nukes? and where are these weapons of mass destruction? >> stahl: flying over the plains of wyoming in an old huey helicopter, we came upon a small fenced-in lot. it didn't look like much. >> carl jones: so that's it right there. >> stahl: air force colonel carl jones told us that, underneath

the concrete near that white pole, there's a minuteman iii missile. it's one of the deadliest and most powerful weapons on the planet. so, is that particular missile armed right now with a nuclear warhead? >> jones: it is. >> stahl: the warhead on each of these land-based missiles is 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on hiroshima and could kill millions if dropped on a major city. the air force still keeps nearly all 450 of them on constant alert, ready to go. we thought the missiles would be hidden away on some vast tract of federal land. my goodness, is this a farm right here? >> jones: it is. >> stahl: we were surprised the missiles were close to rural communities. we saw bales of hay and herds of grazing cattle. >> jones: it's a safe weapon. i mean, it's not going to... it's not going to do anything here on the ground. >> stahl: if by accident or a deliberate act, one of those missiles was launched, is there

a way to disarm it or bring it back? >> jones: no, we can only launch with direction from the president of the united states. now, once that missile has gone, there's no way to recall it or disarm the warhead that's on the missile. once they're gone, they're gone. >> stahl: the missiles are spread out over a wide area surrounding three air force bases in five different states. a web of underground hardened and pressurized cables connect the missiles to buildings like this, where the missiles are monitored remotely miles away in capsules 70 feet underground. the control rooms hang on shock absorbers within a protective shell of concrete and steel. the system was designed in another era, the 1960s, to survive a nuclear blast. we went down by elevator and were escorted to a door that weighs eight tons. >> chaz demerath: ma'am and sir,

i would like to welcome you to... >> stahl: we were allowed to go inside, provided we use an old air force camera and let security officials vet this footage. the so-called "missileers" who watch over and control the missiles work in teams of two on 24-hour shifts known as "alerts." they have everything down here they need to survive. we expected to find pot-bellied veterans at the controls. instead, we found chaz demerath, who's 25, just three years out of the air force academy, and his deputy, dana meyers, 23. this was only her fifth time on duty. when they started this 24-hour shift, they took custody of ten nuclear weapons. so i guess i have to ask you the inevitable question-- where is the button? >> demerath: where is the big button? ma'am, there is no button. >> stahl: there is no button? >> demerath: there is no button. >> stahl: there are three switches and a key, which is kept in this strongbox with two locks on it. demerath has one combination,

meyers has the other. it's one of many layers of safeguards built into the system. >> demerath: even though we trust each other, we don't trust each other. >> stahl: aha. we thought the work would be tedious, just waiting for something that'll probably never happen to happen. but from nearly the moment we asked the question... is this just boring beyond belief? >> demerath: it is never boring because we have so many actions we do every day. ( alarm beeping ) >> stahl: alarms started beeping and the phones kept ringing. >> demerath: ma'am, i mean to ask all of you to remove all yourselves from the capsule at this point. >> stahl: so, is there anything wrong? >> demerath: nothing wrong at this point. >> stahl: we were politely asked to leave at least eight times, so they could decode messages or deal with other classified information. okay, i'm back. the officers may be young... >> demerath: if you can imagine that as being your computer... >> stahl: ...but the equipment is ancient. this, for example, is one of the computers that would receive a launch order from the president.

it uses floppy disks, the really old, big ones. before you got down here, you probably had never seen one of these. >> dana meyers: i had never seen one of these until i got down in missiles. >> stahl: the reason the air force allowed us to visit the missile fields surrounding warren air force base is because it wanted to counter all the bad press it's been getting lately at the two other bases that also guard our land-based missiles. last year, 17 missileers at minot air force base in north dakota were removed from duty after performing poorly on an inspection. at malmstrom air force base in montana, three missileers are under investigation for drug possession, and 91 have been implicated in a scandal involving cheating on routine tests. >> jack weinstein: i am flying back. >> stahl: major general jack weinstein took control of all three nuclear bases in december, with a mandate to find out what ails the missile corps and fix it.

let me ask you a question-- whether there's, i guess you'd call it an identity crisis with the mission as a whole. you have these nuclear weapons that no one believes we'll ever use, so do you find that that's an issue-- the question of "what's the mission?" >> weinstein: no, because we use these weapons every single day protecting our nation. deterrence has a value. it has a value for our nation; it has a value for our allies. >> stahl: general weinstein commands a force of 9,600, including maintenance technicians who keep the missiles in working order, security forces that guard the weapons and provide a heavily armed escort any time the warheads are being moved, and about 500 missileers who man 45 control centers around the clock. the vast majority, the general says, have not cheated on tests. >> weinstein: we're talking about 1% of the 9,600 people that work for me that did violate our core values.

>> stahl: but when you say 1%, it's not 1% of the missileers, right? you're talking about everybody? >> weinstein: right. >> stahl: it's a much larger percent of the missileers? >> weinstein: right. it's about 20% of the missileers. >> stahl: well, that's huge. >> weinstein: it is huge, and that's why we've taken accountability for those people. >> general weinstein also removed the directors of operation... >> stahl: on general weinstein's recommendation, the air force brass announced that the montana base commander would resign and that nine other officers under him would be removed. weinstein told us investigators found no evidence of cheating at the two other missile bases. but that's not what our reporting found. you know, it's interesting because we spoke to a lot of former missileers, and they just say cheating goes on everywhere and it's been going on for quite a long time. >> weinstein: what we did was we look at the evidence. whenever we saw a cell phone, whether it was a text message or an email, we investigated that. >> stahl: one of the people who told us about this cheating being endemic was an instructor

at this base who left last year. >> weinstein: well, i will tell you that, as a commander, if i have any indication that people aren't following our core values, i immediately attack the problem. and we have not seen this problem at the other two bases. >> hands on keys and switches... >> stahl: the former missileers told us that the missile corps has long been treated like the stepchild of the air force-- pilots get all the glory. >> i agree. >> stahl: missileers have fewer chances for advancement. >> we're going to review the monthly lesson plan, and then we're going to take a test. >> stahl: it's said that the reason for the cheating is a "culture of perfection" where missileers have felt they had to get 100% on the tests they take three times a month or face no chance of promotion. we spoke to a group of current missileers at warren air force base, including 26-year-old daniel sharpe from tennessee. why did people feel they had to score 100%? >> daniel sharpe: when i first came here, leadership that was in place told me that the minimum passing score for my test was a 90%, but if i was

making 90s, i was a "d" student and i would be treated that way. >> stahl: but you actually were here under that 100% pressure yourself. >> sharpe: i was. >> stahl: and you felt the pressure and that caused stress, i'm sure of it. >> sharpe: absolutely. but it also caused a great deal of studying and a great deal of proficiency. ( laughter ) >> weinstein: no one cheated because they had to, they didn't know the material. they cheated in order to get 100%. >> stahl: is that gone? >> weinstein: that's gone. >> stahl: so what replaces that? >> weinstein: well, right now, it's pass/fail. as long as they get, you know, above the 90%, which is the standard... >> stahl: wait, wait, wait-- pass... it's still pass? you fail at 90%? >> weinstein: yeah, it's still at 90% right now. >> stahl: wow. how is that improving things? >> weinstein: when you take away the pressure of getting 100% on a test, you have people focused on what they need to know. i think it changes things. >> stahl: it's one of a number of things the general's doing to boost morale, which, by most accounts, has been low for a

long time, even at the top. last year, weinstein's predecessor, major general michael carey, was relieved of command for drunken and inappropriate behavior during an official trip to moscow. according to an inspector general's report, carey complained that his troops had "the worst morale of any airmen in the air force". how many of you chose to be a missileer as your first choice for your military career? two of you. truth be told, the vast majority don't choose this job. this group was impressive-- they majored in physics, engineering, and english, and many are working on their advanced degrees. we've obviously heard a lot about the morale problems. so i wonder what the morale problems come from. >> clair reynolds: well, it fluctuates. and there are times where it just becomes a grind, because you're doing so much in a short period of time a lot of times. and you just have to adapt and

work with the schedule you're given. >> stahl: so it can be more than 24 hours? >> jennifer leute: of course, weather does impact how long we might be downstairs. if we have poor weather, especially during the winter-- we do get that a lot in these northern bases-- you might be down there for 48 hours at a time, or possibly 72. >> stahl: anybody been down for 72? no? 48? >> yes. >> yes. >> yeah. >> stahl: 48-- a lot of you. they told us they feel things are improving, and they also assured us there are many safeguards built into the systems of the launch control centers, or l.c.c.s, to prevent an unauthorized launch. >> launch key inserted. inserted. >> stahl: are any of you partners? >> sharpe: yes, ma'am. lieutenant matuu and i. >> stahl: you're partners. okay, just for the sake of this discussion, let's say both of you go bonkers. and you get the key out and you do... you switch it on. will it go off? >> sharpe: no, ma'am. >> melissa matuu: no. >> stahl: it won't go off? why not? >> matuu: because there are enable codes that we need in

order to get the missile ready for launching. >> only the president of the united states could authorize a launch of nuclear weapons. >> sharpe: and one capsule by themselves can't do it alone. >> right. >> stahl: you would have to receive the codes to put them in? you... you don't have them when you go into the l.c.c? >> sharpe: no, ma'am. >> stahl: okay, well, that's reassuring. an important part of their job is monitoring the condition of the missiles. if they get a signal that something's wrong, they ask for a maintenance crew to fix it. oh, wow. the maintenance crews train on this missile that is virtually identical to the real thing, minus the rocket fuel and warhead. the systems are so complex, the technicians work off detailed checklists. they're constantly shouting "two-two"... >> two-two, two-two. >> stahl: ...because the rules require there always be two

people keeping an eye on one another when they work on a nuclear missile. >> two-two, two-two. >> stahl: the idea is to ensure safety and prevent sabotage. >> two-two, two-two. >> stahl: sometimes, these minutemen iiis have to be removed from their silos for repairs, or for random test launches-- without the warhead, of course-- to make sure the missiles still work. these missiles were designed and built during the cold war, when there was always the fear of a nuclear attack from the soviet union. but the second-in-command of all u.s. nuclear forces said recently that he's more concerned about an accident or human error than a russian attack. >> pelley: when we come back, we'll tell you about some mishaps in the past that nearly led to accidental nuclear detonations on u.s. soil.

>> cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial, calling all chief life officers. >> glor: good evening. angela merkel says the spy controversy will not affect u.s.-german free trade negotiations. swiss chocolate maker lindt is reportedly buying russell stover. andlaza in atlantic city is expected to close down this fall, the third casino to shut down there in nine months. i'm jeff glor, cbs news.

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>> pelley: for more than 50 years, land-based nuclear missiles and long-range bombers have played a key role in america's strategy to deter other nations from using their nuclear weapons against us. but the age of the equipment is a problem, and human error is always a concern. small mistakes, like a dropped socket, can mean the difference between routine maintenance and a major accident. we were not aware until we started researching this story how many close calls there have been involving nuclear weapons-- fires, plane crashes, fuel explosions, even a bomb that was accidentally dropped on u.s. soil. the seriousness of many of these incidents was not disclosed at the time. but as lesley stahl reported in april, witness accounts and declassified government documents have given us a much

better understanding today of how close we came to a nuclear disaster. >> eric schlosser: we came close on numerous occasions during the cold war to having our own weapons detonate accidentally on american soil. >> stahl: eric schlosser spent six years investigating nuclear weapons mishaps during the cold war. his book, "command and control," describes a number of hair- raising incidents... >> clear! >> stahl: ...like a rocket fuel explosion in 1980 in damascus, arkansas, that forced the evacuation of people living near a titan ii missile complex. >> schlosser: someone dropped a socket in the silo, and the socket fell about 70 feet, pierced the missile, caused a fuel leak. and then, there was a huge explosion. >> stahl: if that exploded, how come you say there was no detonation? >> schlosser: they put safety mechanisms in the warheads to make sure they only detonate over the target where they're supposed to.

and that's a testament to the engineering skill of the warhead designers and to good luck. >> stahl: schlosser says that's not the only time we were lucky. a few days after john kennedy's inauguration in 1961, an air force b-52 like this one had mechanical problems and accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb over goldsboro, north carolina. >> schlosser: when it hit the ground, the firing signal was sent. but one safety switch prevented a full-scale detonation of a powerful hydrogen bomb in north carolina. >> stahl: okay, i'm kind of shocked, because i didn't hear that story ever, did i, until you revealed it? >> schlosser: well... >> stahl: was that made public? >> schlosser: there was a real effort throughout the cold war to deny that there was any possibility that a nuclear weapon could detonate by accident. >> stahl: today's minuteman iii missiles use rocket fuel that's more stable and less likely to explode.

and they've upgraded some key components, too, like the guidance systems that direct the missiles toward their target. >> schlosser: the nuclear weapons themselves, the warhead, the bombs, are much safer than they were 30 years ago. there's no question about that. but the infrastructure, the equipment, what carries those weapons... >> stahl: the minuteman itself goes back... >> schlosser: ...to the nixon administration. >> stahl: the nixon administration? >> schlosser: look at it this way-- if you got a beautiful sports car from the 1960s, it would drive really fast and it would be fun to drive. but a modern car is going to have so many more safety mechanisms that are so much more sophisticated. and the architecture, the command and control architecture is complicated and aging. >> stahl: how would you evaluate the risk of an accident happening, a human error kind of thing? >> weinstein: the probability is as close to zero as you can get.

>> stahl: major general jack weinstein's first job as a young airman was manning one of those launch control centers. today, he's in charge of all 450 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in the u.s. you have said that you sleep well at night. >> weinstein: that's a direct quote. >> stahl: some people would say you shouldn't be sleeping well at night. you should be constantly worried, because you have a very complex system here, and there are a lot of things that could go wrong. >> weinstein: the people that designed this weapon system in the 1960s, even though we've made upgrades, are actually brilliant. and there's a lot of safety mechanisms built into the system. >> stahl: but during our visit to the underground control center with colonel carl jones, we got a glimpse of what the missile corps is up against. take this enormous outer door designed to protect the corridor leading to the capsule. they can't close it because of a broken part, so it's propped open with a crow-bar and marked with a danger tag.

we were told the door has been disabled like this for years. >> jones: many things in the capsule, in the equipment building, aren't manufactured anymore, so we have to figure out a way to manufacture that piece, and see if the new piece will work. >> stahl: at a missile silo we visited, time and frigid weather had clearly taken their toll. the missile was being pulled from the silo for repairs because water had seeped in. >> it's probably the worst case of loose nukes in u.s. military history. >> stahl: some nuclear weapons snafus have happened fairly recently. in 2007, six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were loaded onto a b-52 by mistake, flown across the country, and left unguarded on the tarmac. no one noticed for 36 hours. that led then-defense secretary robert gates to ask the air force secretary and chief of staff to resign. in 2010, because of a technical

glitch, a missile squadron at the base we visited in wyoming stopped receiving electronic messages from the missiles it was charged with monitoring. >> weinstein: what happened was we lost status monitoring of 50 missiles. what we... >> stahl: 50 missiles? >> weinstein: 50, it was a squadron. what we... >> stahl: for an hour? >> weinstein: a little under an hour but... an hour. >> stahl: what word would you use to describe that? is it "serious"? was it "dangerous"? >> weinstein: i don't view it as dangerous at all, because of the safety of the weapon system. i would call it serious when you lose status monitoring for that period of time. ( phone ringing ) >> stahl: being able to communicate with the missiles and with others on the base is essential to a missileer's job. so we were surprised to learn they were having trouble hearing what was being said on their phones. >> meyers: can you repeat that? >> stahl: what about the phones? >> leute: they're awful. >> reynolds: yeah, they're... they're not so great. ( laughter )

>> stahl: what isn't great about them? the... is it... what... >> matuu: just the connection. >> stahl: the hearing, or is it that you can't connect when you make a call or..? >> leute: it's both. i mean, you can't hear the other person on the other end of the line. sometimes, you can't dial out, which makes it very difficult if you're trying to do your job. >> stahl: just to be clear-- the president will not be calling them on the phone with his launch orders. they have other, more secure systems for that. but still... >> weinstein: it is an analog system, and when you have an analog system, there are problems. we're looking at upgrading that in the next few years. >> stahl: years. >> weinstein: next few years. >> stahl: not months? >> weinstein: no, years.g really, really, really old computers. i saw a floppy disc, and not a floppy disc that size. it was gigantic. >> weinstein: i'll tell you, those older systems provide us some... i will say huge safety when it comes to some cyber issues that we currently have in the world. >> stahl: now, explain that. >> weinstein: a few years ago, we did a complete analysis of our entire network.

cyber engineers found out that the system is extremely safe and extremely secure on the way it's developed. >> stahl: meaning that you're not up on the internet, that kind of thing? >> weinstein: we're not up on the internet. >> stahl: so, did the cyber people recommend you keep it the way it is? >> weinstein: for right now, yes. >> stahl: a terrorist attack is also a major concern. this tactical security team... >> move! >> stahl: ...trains constantly to take back a missile silo from the bad guys if they ever get in. once the team enters the compound... >> go! go! go! >> stahl: ...and secures the site, they go down into the silo, fast-roping and drawing their guns quicker than most of us can tie a shoelace. >> lets go! lets go! lets go! >> stahl: the land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, the icbms, that we saw are just one part of the nuclear triad that includes missiles on submarines and bombers. the congressional budget office estimates that operating and upgrading all three legs of the

triad is going to cost at least $355 billion over the next ten years. do we need all three legs of the triad? >> schlosser: i think that the one leg of the triad that may be the least useful are our missiles. >> stahl: the land-based... >> schlosser: the land-based missiles are targets. the russians know exactly where they are. it puts the states where they are based at risk, whereas with submarines, they're hidden. one of the things about a bomber is, if the bomber takes off with nuclear weapons and you change your mind, you can have the bomber come back to the base. and you can't do that with a land-based missile. >> stahl: the land-based leg of the triad-- do we need to have that? >> weinstein: i think it's extremely important to have an on-alert, 24/7 nuclear capability to protect our nation. when... i think we need to look at the problem set sometimes in the eyes of other nations.

when other nations are upgrading their icbm force, they're modernizing their icbm force, i think it's extremely important that we provide the american public with that day-to-day deterrent value that the icbm provides. >> stahl: and that's the mission. >> weinstein: and that's the mission. >> hands on keys and switches. >> stahl: we were watching the missileers practicing their procedures in a simulator... >> mark! >> would you like to do a key turn? >> stahl: ...when one of the instructors offered us a chance to do a practice launch. it was simple enough to turn the switches. >> and in three, two, one-- turn. >> stahl: how many missiles did i actually launch, one or ten? >> you launched 50. >> stahl: i launched 50? >> 50. >> sharpe: i would say everybody here would remember their first alert. you ride the elevator down, you go through those first two massive blast doors, and you're looking at the same console you've been training on for so long.

but this one is tethered directly to ten nuclear weapons with status monitoring for an additional 40. and that weighs on you, absolutely weighs on you. >> stahl: we left the base more aware of the pressures these young officers are under, and hoping their superiors will get around to fixing those phones and broken doors. >> pelley: the air force tells us it plans to spend nearly a billion dollars over the next six years to upgrade those launch control centers and missile silos, and make other improvements to its nuclear force. the spending will require congressional approval. >> and now a cbs sports update presented by pacific life. at the john deere classic, 27-year-old brian harmon finished atop the leaderdrboa for his first pga tour victory.

zach johnson finished second. fifa world cup final between germany and argentina. germany wins 1-0 in extra time for their fourth world cup title. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. this is phil macatee reporting. . it takes is a little advice and a lot of planning. a retirement income from pacific life can help you live comfortably after you stop working. for more than one hundred and forty five years, we've been helping people achieve long-term financial security. learn how to create a retirement income at pacificlife.com. pacific life. the power to help you succeed. but i've managed. ♪ i got to be pretty good at managing my symptoms, except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. ♪ when i finally told my doctor,

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>> safer: two years ago, german authorities conducting a routine tax investigation stumbled on the largest trove of missing art since the end of world war ii. the massive collection-- barely a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of artworks still missing-- was discovered in a munich apartment owned by cornelius gurlitt, the reclusive 81-year-old son of one of hitler's favorite art dealers. most of it was art plundered from museums and from jewish collections. for germans, it was an unwelcome reminder of a bitter history. to the heirs of the victims, it's perhaps a last chance to recover a small vestige of family history. as we reported last april, the

discovery also triggered a legal battle about who really owns that art. did you have any idea that he had so many paintings in that apartment? >> ekkeheart gurlitt: i tell you what-- nobody had any idea about this. ( laughs ) really. how can you live with 1,400 paintings in... in a flat... a 90 square meter flat. i thought, maybe has a 100 or 150, but 1,000? we are... everybody was surprised, you know. >> safer: ekkeheart gurlitt is cornelius gurlitt's cousin, a rather flamboyant photographer now living in barcelona. >> gurlitt: his friends were his paintings, right. and for the last 60 years, he was living with his paintings, which was his... his idea of life, you know. >> safer: of the 1,400... >> gurlitt: 1,406. ( laughter ) >> safer: you've got it right down to the last one. >> gurlitt: i mean, it's different if you have 1,400 picassos or you have 1,406. >> safer: picasso was just the beginning. cornelius gurlitt's secret hoard of art included modern masters

like matisse, chagall, franz marc, and otto dix. gurlitt's small world fell apart in 2010 almost by accident. traveling back from switzerland to germany, a customs inspection brought him under suspicion and triggered a tax investigation that would be his undoing. >> willi korte: they had caught him on a train with 9,000 euros in cash in his pocket, which made them suspicious. then, they tried to look him up in their files and they couldn't find him. the man didn't seem to exist. he wasn't registered, he didn't pay taxes, he didn't receive any benefits. so the man just wasn't there. >> safer: willi korte is a lawyer who specializes in tracking down stolen art. >> korte: i can imagine the conclusions they drew when they saw this old man surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of works of art. "there's something very fishy going on. and maybe he's a secret art dealer. maybe he's involved in some smuggling activities.

there must be enormous amounts of money at stake." >> safer: it was on february 28, 2012, that agents from the german customs police raided a fifth floor apartment in this nondescript building in munich. it's fair to say they were blown away by what they found-- 1,400 works of art, some of them worth millions. they also found 80-year-old cornelius gurlitt, a virtual hermit, who's said the only friends he had in this world were his art-- art thought to be worth over a billion dollars. art piled on shelves. much of it, art the nazis declared to be degenerate. it was art taken from the walls of museums, and from jewish- owned galleries and collectors. hinrichsen never received the r

money. in 1942, he was gassed at auschwitz. >> hinrichsen: legally, it was a sale. morally and ethically is another question. >> safer: but with the seller having no choice. >> hinrichsen: exactly. >> safer: another painting gurlitt had was "two riders on the beach" by max liebermann, now valued at more than a million dollars. david toren, now 88 and blind, left germany on a kinder transport days before the war began. he last saw the painting at his uncle's home in breslau just before his father was arrested by the nazis.

both parents were murdered at auschwitz. >> david toren: there came two guys from the gestapo-- "we have instructions to take you to gestapo headquarters." that day, i remember every little detail. i was sitting in the anteroom at the winter garden and looked at the picture, and that was the last time i saw that picture. >> safer: toren had been searching for any trace of his family's art collection, but all he found was a 1939 nazi inventory that mentions the liebermann painting. >> toren: the letter says that the action to confiscate art owned by jews has been very successful, but there's still some rich jews left. and the first example, he mentions my uncle. and the letter ends with, "i want the jew, david friedman,

not to dispose of any of the art objects until we come back." >> safer: after the war, the allies' art recovery unit-- the "monuments men"-- found and returned millions of artworks. they also found hildebrand gurlitt hiding out in this bavarian castle owned by a local nazi party leader. inside were hundreds of treasures hildebrand and his young son cornelius had hidden. many more were apparently stashed in hiding places all over germany. the monuments men took some of his paintings, but they let himd they not? >> korte: that's an unresolved mystery, i think, up to this day. he was able to produce one story after another about how he had acquired these before the war, and for reasons that i have a hard time understanding, he got away with it. >> safer: among the artworks in

that castle was david toren's uncle's painting. hildebrand gurlitt told the monuments men it was a gift from his parents before the war, and that painting, like most of the others, was returned to him. did he feel any... did he feel any guilt working for the nazis? >> gurlitt: i'm sorry, but he had to survive. so what would you do? i mean, this is... this is just a thing. what... what would you do? >> safer: but was he as innocent as he claimed? >> voigt: most of these artworks were stolen, i think-- confiscated from jewish families or stolen, yeah. >> safer: hannes hartung and tido park, two lawyers who have represented cornelius gurlitt, say the sins of the father should not be visited on the son. >> hannes hartung: hildebrand gurlitt wasn't completely innocent. that's... that's for sure. and now, there are cases we will deal in a fair manner because, you know, under german law, morality has nothing to say. this... no, i'm sorry to tell

you, but the german law, it's a law which... which has not been made for the horrible outcome of the third reich and all that happened. so now, what we are talking about now is about morality and how to deal with moral responsibility. >> safer: german law puts a 30- year statute of limitations on stolen property, so the works, by law, remain the property of cornelius gurlitt. as for the art itself, authorities won't explain why they kept the discovery a secret for nearly two years. how strong is the government's criminal case against him? >> tido park: they really don't have a strong case. they pretend to have a case because they have, of course, to justify the seizure of the whole collection. >> safer: right now, the collection is in the hands of a task force, which is examining each work for evidence of looting. ingrid bergreen-merkel heads up

the task force. uwe hartmann is the chief researcher. he says, even as germany was collapsing in 1945, the nazis were dutifully recording the art thefts. ( laughs ) why did they keep these records of the evidence of their own crimes? >> ingrid berggreen-merkel: you mustn't throw public documents away. that's what they learned in... that's what they did. >> uwe hartmann: that's the german gruündlichkeit-- to... to do his duty. >> berggreen-merkel: yeah. they weren't allowed to. >> hartmann: until the last day. >> safer: the task force is initially examining 590 works as potentially looted from jews, starting with this matisse which was looted from jewish art dealer paul rosenberg in 1941. beyond the... the minutiae of legality, there's a larger question and that's the moral question. >> berggreen-merkel: 80 years after hitler took over, 75 years after the synagogues burned in germany-- yes, we know. that's the moral obligation. and we take it seriously, very

seriously. on the other side, there are the laws. >> safer: so you're not making judgments. >> berggreen-merkel: no, we are not a court. we can't. we mustn't. >> safer: but you could still recommend. >> berggreen-merkel: mr. gurlitt told me when i talked to him, he said, "what's-- what's been taken away... what had been robbed"-- that was his words-- "has to be given back." >> safer: cornelius gurlitt says the collection is rightfully his and that his father did nothing wrong. but he says he is willing to negotiate. what a lot of people might wonder is, there's nothing to negotiate here. these paintings either belonged to german museums and should go back to those german museums, or to jews who owned collections and were forced to "sell" them. >> park: mr. gurlitt is absolutely willing to find fair solutions. but what we need, of course, is clear evidence. because we have some letters addressed to mr. gurlitt saying, "oh, look, my grandma had a specific painting 70 years ago

in her living room." no evidence, nothing. >> safer: as for martha hinrichsen, she has filed a claim with the task force, but has little confidence she'll ever see her grandfather's drawing. >> hinrichsen: quite honestly, i don't believe in my lifetime, because i think this is going to be a long, long battle. >> safer: cornelius gurlitt died in may. shortly before his death, he agreed to return any paintings found to be stolen to victims' families. the rest he left to a swiss museum. >> why did hitler fear modern art? morley safer explains. go to 60minutesovertime.com. my name is jenny, and i quit smoking with chantix. before chantix, i tried to quit... probably about five times. it was different than the other times i tried to quit. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is

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