FIRST OFF . . .

West Germany and East Germany are scheduled to sign an agreement today in East Berlin to return works of art evacuated during World War II and stored in each other’s territory, the Bonn government said Thursday. Under the agreement, the Communist government in East Berlin will give back 300 works of art to West Germany, while 130 paintings and sculptures stored in West Germany would be handed over to East Germany. According to Reuters news service, the collections include works by Max Liebermann, Edvard Munch and carvings by Albrecht Duerer. Nazi authorities secluded hundreds of art treasures in remote parts of Germany to protect them from wartime bombings. After the division of Germany at the end of the war, many treasures originally housed in galleries in one half of the country found themselves stored in territory belonging to the other.