A Nazi-looted painting stolen from Jewish Dutch art collector Jacques Goudstikker has been located at the home of the granddaughter of an SS Commander.
Portrait of a Young Girl, painted in the early 1900s by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, was among of a sizeable collection taken by Hermann Göring, the Commander of the Luftwaffe, when Goudstikker fled the Nazi-occupied Netherlands for the UK in 1940.
It was believed to have been sold at auction to Dutch SS Commander Hendrik Seyffardt the same year and was passed down through his family.
The location of much of the collection remains unknown, but Portrait of a Young Girl was tracked down by art detective Arthur Brand.
In Brand’s investigation, he found that the painting, which is in the home of Seyffardt’s granddaughter in the Netherlands, had a “Goudstikker” label on its back along with the number “92”, matching the number given to the painting when it was sold at the 1940 auction.
According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Brand said that the granddaughter initially admitted that the painting was “Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker,” but added: “It is unsellable. Don’t tell anyone.”
One family member reportedly told Brand: “I understand that Goudstikker’s heirs want the painting back. I didn’t know that."
And another family member reportedly said: “I feel ashamed. The painting should be returned to the heirs of Goudstikker,” and decided to go to the press in an effort to get the painting returned to the decedents of Goudstikker.
Lawyers for the Goustikker family have called for the painting to be returned to them however there is nothing the police are able to do to assist due to the statute of limitations having long passed.
“The family member sees public exposure as the only way to hopefully return the painting to the Goudstikker heirs, where it rightfully belongs,” Brand said.
The art detective also added: “I have recovered Nazi-looted art from [the Second World War] before, including pieces in the Louvre, the Dutch Royal Collection and numerous museums - but discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen [armed]-SS general, truly tops everything.”
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