Family of Nazi general want looted painting to be returned

A painting stolen by the Nazis from one of the most prominent Dutch Jewish art collectors has been found hanging in a house in Utrecht.

The work, Portrait of a Young Girl by the early 20th-century artist Toon Kelder, was looted in 1940 as part of the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, who died in an accident on board a ship while trying to flee to England.

Art detective Arthur Brand traced the painting to the descendants of one of the Netherlands’ most notorious collaborators, who bought the painting when the Nazis auctioned off much of Goudstikker’s collection in 1940.

Brand told the Telegraaf he was “astonished” to find it hanging in the home of the granddaughter of Hendrik Seyffaert, a Dutch Nazi general who was shot by the Resistance in 1943.

He was the leader of the Dutch Volunteer SS, a senior adviser to wartime leader Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Dutch Nazi party chief Anton Mussert. After his death the Germans renamed a Dutch volunteer unit on the Eastern front in his honour.

Seyffaert’s family changed their name after the war, but the painting remained in their possession.

Brand said he had been approached by a family member who said it had been passed on to Seyffaert’s granddaughter, adding he wanted it to be returned to Goudstikker’s surviving relatives.

Brand found the painting hanging in the hallway when he visited the woman’s home in Utrecht. He verified the work through a sticker on the back that displayed the name Goudstikker and the number 92, which corresponded to a listing in an auction catalogue from 1940.

“To find a painting by the Jewish collector Goudstikker with one of the biggest Nazi collaborators, the head of the Volunteer Legion, the man who was shot dead by the Dutch resistance – it encompasses the whole tragedy of the Second World War,” he told NOS.

Goudstikker’s descendants in the United States have called for the painting to be returned to them, but the Dutch government is unable to force the family to hand it over because it has passed the statute of limitations.

The national restitutions committee, which handles claims for the return of art stolen by the Nazis, can only deal with works that are in public ownership.

Seyffaert’s granddaughter told the Telegraaf she was unaware that the painting was from a stolen collection. “I received it from my mother.” she said.

But Brand said he had audio recordings of the woman saying she knew it was from the Goudstikker collection, adding: “It’s unsellable. Don’t tell anyone!”

The relative who contacted Brand told the Telegraaf he also wanted the painting to be returned to Goudstikker’s family. He only discovered long after the war that he was related to Seyffaert.

“That’s why I’m going public,” he said. “I feel a deep shame about the history of my family and I am furious about the years of silence. The painting has to be returned to its rightful Jewish owners.”