Son of a Nazi-era art dealer, Cornelius Gurlitt, who died Tuesday at age 81, amassed an art collection estimated to be worth 1-billion euros. He named the Bern Art Museum in Switzerland as his sole heir.

The museum says it had no relationship with the reculsive art hoarder. Given the mounting legal disputes over some the artworks concluded to be illegally acquired under the Nazis, many questions remain about the ownership of works in Gurlitt's collection.

"The Board of Trustees and directors of Kunstmuseum Bern are surprised and delighted, but at the same time do not wish to conceal the fact that this magnificent bequest brings with it a considerable burden of responsibility and a wealth of questions of the most difficult and sensitive kind, and questions in particular of a legal and ethical nature," the museum said in a statement.

"It now falls to the probate court to determine if the will is valid and whether a contract of inheritance exists," Gurlitt's spokesman Stephan Holzinger told the BBC.