Nearly a dozen sculptures considered by the Nazis to be “degenerate” artwork and believed to have been lost or destroyed after World War II have been unearthed during construction near Berlin's city hall and were shown to reporters Monday.

The terra-cotta and bronze statues were found during a dig to lay down a new subway line. They belonged to a collection of 15,000 works condemned by Hitler's regime for containing “deviant” sexual elements, anti-nationalistic themes or criticizing Nazi ideology.