Nazi-Looted Toon Kelder Painting Found in Dutch SS Collaborator's Family Home

Art detective Arthur Brand confirmed the recovery of 'Portrait of a Young Girl' by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, a piece plundered from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. The painting was located in the home of the Seyffardt family, descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, a Dutch general who commanded a Waffen-SS unit and was assassinated by resistance fighters in 1943.

The discovery emerged after a Seyffardt descendant, who expressed shame over his family's possession of the artwork, contacted Brand. The family member revealed that his grandmother had admitted the painting was "Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker. It is unsellable. Don't tell anyone," after he enquired about its history. Despite this, the family, who changed their surname post-war, reportedly denied prior knowledge of the painting's true origins in a statement to Dutch media.

Brand's investigation confirmed the painting's provenance, linking it to a 1940 auction where much of Goudstikker's confiscated collection was sold. Evidence included a label on the reverse and the number 92 etched into its frame, corresponding with auction records. Brand postulates that Hermann Goering initially plundered the artwork, which was then sold to Seyffardt before being passed down through his lineage.

Lawyers representing Goudstikker's heirs have verified the collector's ownership of six Toon Kelder paintings, all included in the 1940 auction. Brand described the recovery as "stunning" and the "most bizarre case" of his career, criticising the family's protracted failure to return the painting.