Dutch art detective Arthur Brand revealed that a painting looted from a Jewish collector during World War II had been hanging for decades in the home of a Dutch family descended from Hendrik Seyffardt, commander of a volunteer unit in the Netherlands that aided Nazi Germany’s SS.
The painting, “Portrait of a Young Girl” by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, belonged to the extensive collection of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, from whom more than 1,000 works of art were looted after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. Goudstikker was killed while trying to flee the country in 1940.
According to the investigation’s findings, the work was likely transferred after Nazi Germany, led by senior officials including Hermann Göring, confiscated works from Jewish collections and sold them through wartime art deals. Brand believes the painting was included in a 1940 auction and later came into Seyffardt’s possession, before being passed down within the family.
The case came to light when a family member, who discovered he was descended from Seyffardt, contacted Brand through an intermediary after growing suspicious about the painting’s origin. According to him, a check with his grandmother found that the painting had been “bought during the war,” but was known in the family as “looted Jewish art.”
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The painting hung in the home of a Nazi collaborator for decades
(Photo: Arthur Brand / AFP)
In a statement to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the family member said: “I am ashamed. The painting must be returned to Goudstikker’s heirs.” The grandmother, for her part, said she had not known the painting’s true origin.
Brand said his investigation was based on labels on the back of the work and a number engraved on the frame, which led him to 1940 auction archives. He said he cross-checked the information with records from the Goudstikker collection, which include works by Toon Kelder, and identified a possible match with an item sold under No. 92.
Lawyers for Goudstikker’s heirs confirmed that he had owned six paintings by Kelder and that they appear in the historical sales records. Brand said talks are now underway to return the work to the original family.
In an interview with the BBC, Brand described the case as “the strangest discovery of my career,” and said it was another chapter in the continuing effort to return artworks looted during the Holocaust to their rightful heirs.