Flick defends his controversial art exhibition in Berlin

In a public appearance on Tuesday, Christian Flick, the billionaire grandson of a Nazi collaborator, defended the showing of his huge art collection, which critics view as tainted by the family's history. Flick was in Berlin to promote the forthcoming opening of the 2,500-piece art exhibition in the German capital. Salomon Korn, vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, had accused Flick of trying to "whitewash" the family's history, while Flick's sister had called for a delay to the exhibition as long as the family name was connected to it. His brother, Gert-Rudolf, said: "It gives some in the family a bad feeling when the Flick name is being marketed.'' Christian Flick distanced himself from his grandfather's ties and brushed off the criticism, saying he refused to be known as the Nazi of the family, and added that he was going his own way. His grandfather, Friedrich-Karl Flick, was sentenced in 1947 to seven years in prison for crimes committed during the "Third Reich", including the use of slave labor in his arms factories and the "Aryanization" of Jewish property. Christian Flick has repeatedly been criticized for not paying into a fund set up by German companies and the government to pay compensation to victims of slave labor.