When the German authorities began to investigate Cornelius Girlett for tax evasion, they were only

looking for proof of illegal accounting.

What they found though was an entire apartment filled with artwork worth over a billion dollars.

Girlett's father had been an art dealer during the early days of the Second World War.

He was one of only four dealers who had Nazi permission to sell what they considered

to be degenerate art.

So as tens of thousands of pieces were stolen from museums and private collections all across

Europe, many of them landed into Girlett's father's hands, and he kept them.

These are pieces that have been hidden away for nearly 80 years, considered lost by many

art historians.

They include work by Picasso, Monet, and Renoir, among many others, all gathered together

inside a 1000 square foot apartment in Munich, a collection that finally saw the light of

day in February of 2012.

Humans are collectors.

Whether it's paintings or beer caps, stories or trophies, we have a knack for assembling

and arranging things into groups.

These collections might remind us of our childhood or of a better time.

They might represent a partnership with a loved one or a challenge to be conquered.

But we also collect the immaterial.

Specifically, we've become very good at collecting the darker elements of our world.

We've gathered the worst of us, the most horrifying elements and the most frightening

realities, and pushed them all into one place, hoping to lock it all away from the rest

...