One of the works of art stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish collector during World War II has been found in the home of the heirs of one of the most notorious Dutch collaborators.
The painting is a portrait by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, titled “Portrait of a Young Girl,” which had been in the family of Hendrik Seyfardt for decades.
The painting originally belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Gaudsticker, who was killed in 1940 while trying to escape the Netherlands during the Nazi invasion. He left behind a valuable collection of over 1,000 works of art.
Arthur Brand, a detective who searches for lost works of art, located the painting thanks to a tip from a man who claimed to be Seyfardt’s heir. The latter said he was “shocked and angry” when he learned that his family had been keeping the stolen artwork for years.
Hendrik Seyfardt was a Dutch general who commanded a volunteer unit of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front during World War II. He was killed by members of the resistance movement in 1943.
According to the report, the man, upon learning about his family’s past, asked his grandmother about the painting’s provenance. The grandmother said that it had been acquired during the war and that “it was a work of art looted from the Jews, stolen from the Gaudsticker.”
The family changed their surname after the war. Although they admitted that the painting had been in their possession for a long time, they insisted that they were unaware of its true origin. After discovering the truth, a family member contacted Arthur Brand through an intermediary, convinced that the story needed to be made public to return the work to its rightful heirs.
According to Brand, the painting was once appropriated by Hermann Göring, one of the most influential figures in Nazi Germany, after Gaudsticker fled to Great Britain in 1940. It was later sold at auction, passed to Seyfardt, and then inherited by his family.
As part of the investigation, Brand contacted the lawyers of Gaudsticker’s heirs. They confirmed that the collector owned six paintings by Toon Kelder that were included in the 1940 auction.
