Toon Kelder Painting from Goudstikker Collection Found in Dutch Private Home

An artwork looted by the Nazis from the Goudstikker collection has been located in the home of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, a senior Dutch collaborator with the Nazis, according to art detective Arthur Brand. The painting, titled Portrait of a Young Girl and created by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, is believed to have hung for decades in the hallway of Hendrik Seyffardt’s granddaughter’s home.

Brand described the case as “the most bizarre case of my entire career”.

An anonymous man who recently learned he was descended from Seyffardt approached Brand after seeing the painting. The man told Brand he had seen the painting hanging in the hallway of Hendrik Seyffardt’s granddaughter’s home. Hendrik Seyffardt commanded a Waffen-SS unit of volunteers on the eastern front.

He was assassinated by resistance fighters in 1943. A Nazi state funeral was held for him in The Hague, and Adolf Hitler sent a wreath. According to Brand, Seyffardt’s granddaughter told the family member that the painting was “Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker.

It is unsellable. ” The family had not known the painting was looted prior to the confrontation. The anonymous family member told De Telegraaf: “I feel ashamed. ” A relative was quoted as saying: “I received it from my mother.

Now that you confront me like this, I understand that Goudstikker’s heirs want the painting back. ” The painting originates from the Goudstikker collection of the late Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. It has a Goudstikker label on the back and the number 92 is carved into the frame.

Hermann Göring looted Jacques Goudstikker’s entire collection in 1940 after Jacques Goudstikker fled to England that year. Brand launched an investigation and searched the archives of the 1940 auction. He found that the painting was item No 92 in a 1940 auction of part of the looted Goudstikker collection.

Brand surmises that Hendrik Seyffardt acquired the painting at the 1940 auction and it was passed down through generations. Lawyers representing the Goudstikker heirs confirmed to Brand that the artwork was looted. The lawyers called for its return.

The anonymous family member who contacted Brand also wants the painting delivered to the Goudstikker heirs. Police are powerless to act because the theft has passed the statute of limitations. The Dutch Restitutions Committee cannot compel private individuals to return artworks.

Brand said the family member sees public exposure as the only way to return the painting to the Goudstikker heirs. Brand has previously recovered Nazi-looted art from World War Two, including pieces in the Louvre, the Dutch Royal Collection, and numerous museums. An 18th-century Nazi-looted painting from the Goudstikker collection featured in a property ad in Argentina in 2025.