Legal experts have said that claims against Cornelius Gurlitt, the collector in whose Munich apartment the paintings, prints and drawings were found, could be hard to enforce because of Germany's 30-year statute of limitations.
Bavaria's Justice Minister Winfried Bausback told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview published Friday that it would be "difficult to stomach" if the statute of limitations prevented heirs from recovering their pictures, and suggested changes to the law might be possible.
Michael Hulton, a doctor living in the United States, was able to reach an out-of-court agreement with Gurlitt two years ago over the sale of a Max Beckmann picture. The painting had once belonged to his great-uncle, the late Jewish collector Alfred Flechtheim.
Hulton said if the trove now discovered in Munich contains more items from the Flechtheim collection a similar deal might be conceivable.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters Friday that the head of the task force set up to help investigate the works would contact Gurlitt directly. The collector hasn't publicly said whether he wants to have the paintings back.