A painting stolen from a Jewish art collector by Nazis in the course of the Second World War has been recovered in the house of relatives of well-known Dutch SS collaborator Hendrik Seyffardt and is now within the hands of a Dutch journalist, art detective Arthur Brand told Global News.
The renowned painting titled Portrait of a Young Girl by Dutch artist Toon Kelder belonged to the looted Goudstikker collection and is believed to have remained for years in the house of Seyffardt’s descendants, in line with Brand, who described the invention as “probably the most bizarre case of my entire profession,” The Guardian reported.
Seyffardt collaborated with the Nazis during Hitler’s invasion of the Netherlands and led a volunteer Waffen-SS unit on the Eastern Front before he was assassinated in 1943.
Seyffardt was given a Nazi state funeral in The Hague and received a wreath sent by Hitler.
Jacques Goudstikker, a famed Dutch-Jewish art collector and owner of the painting, died while attempting to flee the invasion, abandoning greater than 1,000 works.
In 2006, his family successfully reclaimed 200 Nazi-looted items that had since come under the control of the Dutch government, in line with the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
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The case is analogous to a discovery made last yr when a Nazi-looted painting — also belonging to the Goudstikker collection — was found at a house in Argentina, where 1000’s of notorious Nazis and war criminals fled after the war.
In the course of the more moderen Dutch discovery, Brand told Dutch and British media that he was approached by a person who claimed to be a descendant of Seyffardt and said the painting had been hanging within the hallways of the SS collaborator’s granddaughter’s house.
In accordance with The Guardian, Seyffardt’s granddaughter said the painting was “Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker. It’s unsellable. Don’t tell anyone.”
The member of the family then hired Brand, a widely known art detective, who told Dutch outlet De Telegraaf that they felt ashamed and believed the artwork ought to be returned to its rightful owners.
In accordance with the newspaper, the Seyffardt family was discussing whether to return the item, as they claimed they were unaware it had been stolen.
“I received it from my mother. Now that you just confront me like this, I understand that Goudstikker’s heirs want the painting back. I didn’t know that,” a relative reportedly told the outlet.
Brand’s investigation verified the painting’s authenticity and traced the sale of the item to an auction in 1940, where he deduced that Seyffardt had bought the piece from senior Nazi official Hermann Göring, who he said had obtained all the collection during its initial looting, in line with the Dutch news agency.
“The member of the family sees public exposure because the only approach to hopefully return the painting to the Goudstikker heirs, where it rightfully belongs,” Brand told the outlet.
He confirmed to Global on Tuesday that the painting had been handed over to a Dutch reporter and was set to be returned to its rightful owners.
Left to right: A Dutch journalist and art detective, Arthur Brand, pose with a recovered painting looted by the Nazis.
Arthur Brand
Last week, one other Nazi-looted artwork was placed on display for the primary time on the Musée d’Orsay in Paris as a part of France’s reckoning with Nazi-era looting. The gallery is the primary within the museum’s history to be given over to the orphaned masterpieces of the Nazi era.
The painting by Belgian artist Alfred Stevens was originally earmarked for Hitler’s planned museum in Linz, Austria. But by 1943, it was reassigned to Hitler’s mountain home within the Bavarian region of Germany. The museum was never built following Germany’s defeat.
No heir has ever come forward to say the painting, and nobody knows who owned it before 1942.
— With files from The Associated Press