A painting stolen by the Nazis from the Goudstikker collection has surfaced in the home of descendants of a Dutch SS collaborator, according to an art detective.
Portrait of a Young Girl, by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, was allegedly displayed for decades by the family of Hendrik Seyffardt, a general who aided the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands before being killed by the Dutch resistance. As previously reported, a man claiming to be a descendant of Seyffardt contacted the detective Arthur Brand after discovering the painting in his family’s possession. The source, who requested anonymity, told Brand he’d only recently learned of his familial relation to Seyffardt, and later saw the work hanging in the hallway of Seyffardt’s granddaughter.
The man’s grandmother reportedly told him that it had been purchased during World War II, and that it was “Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker. It is unsellable. Don’t tell anyone.”
The family member told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that the admission left him “stunned speechless.”
“It is true that I discovered my family possesses the looted painting and does not want to return it,” he said, adding, “That is why I am now bringing it into the public eye. I feel deep shame about the family past and am furious about the years of silence. The painting must return to the Jewish rightful heirs.”
Brand reportedly traced the painting to a 1940 auction of Nazi-looted artworks, adding that attorneys for the Goudstikker heirs have initiated restitution proceedings.
Jacques Goudstikker owned more than 1,200 artworks, specializing in Old Masters, all of which were stolen—making it one of the largest collections of Nazi-looted art still awaiting reunification with its rightful owners. Portrait of a Young Girl was likely inherited by Hendrik Seyffardt’s son, himself a known Nazi sympathizer, after his father’s assassination by the Hague resistance in 1943.
Hendrik Seyffardt’s heirs—who have since dropped the notorious surname—admitted in a statement to Dutch media that they are in possession of the painting, but denied knowing that it was looted art.
The case recalls another in Argentina last year, when an 18th-century painting by Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi was discovered in a photograph hanging in the living room of a property outside Buenos Aires. Investigators found the portrait listed in a database of lost art as stolen from the Goudstikker collection.
