Goudstikker: stolen art returned to Holland

Jacques Goudstikker's gallery, 1927-40

Amsterdam. Wiki

Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940) was born in Amsterdam, son of a Jewish art dealer. He studied at the Commercial School in Amsterdam, then in Leid­en and Utrecht. In 1919 he joined his fath­er's Amsterdam gallery, remodelled it as a pub­lic limited liab­ility company with himself as the director, and created an inter­nat­ional style.

He was becoming a connoisseur and scholar whose expertise was admired across Europe. Goudstikker's taste extended to the des­ign of his catalogues, minor works of art in them­selves, and close ties with art historians and col­lect­ors. His clients eg Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza shared this mix of connoisseurship and scholarship.

Post-WW1, Amsterdam was a centre of inter­nat­ional trade where top galleries flourished. In 1927 he moved to a larger gallery and presented works from the Dutch Golden Age, alongside panels by Dutch, Flemish, German and Italian artists, mixing paintings, sculptures & carpets. His Old Masters coll­ection included Lucas Cranach, Jan Steen, Adriaen van Ostade, Isaac van Ostade & landscapers Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruysdael. Goudstikker had fine paint­ings by Jan van der Heyden at his country home Nijen­rode Cas­tle where he ent­er­tained clients. Plus some still-lifes eg Jan van Huysum in National Gallery, and figure painters eg Ferdinand Bol and Aert de Gelder.

Some of Goudstikker’s Dutch and Flemish paintings, including 5 van Goghs, 2 van Dongens and a Mondrian, went to NY’s Anderson Gall­ery in 1923, organised by the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce. Between the wars, Goud­stikker was the ?most important Dutch dealer of Old Master paintings, even though the Depression badly affected art trade. None­theless Goud­­­stikker could still organise a Rubens ex­hib­ition in 1933. And a classy ex­hib­ition of Italian Paint­ings in Dutch Col­lect­ions at the Amsterdam Stedel­ijk Mus­eum in 1934. 

Floris van Schooten,

Still Life with Cheeses, c1620

Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco

Cottages by the Can­al

by Jan van Goyen, 1630

National Museum, Gdańsk

His fine works included the Ferry Boat with Cattle on the Riv­er Vecht by Salomon van Ruysdael, Judgment of Paris by Fran­çois Boucher and Christ Car­rying the Cross by Hieronymous Bosch, now in Vienna’s Kunsthis­tor­isches Museum. Young Girl with a Flute by Vermeer was later pur­chased by Joseph Wid­ener to donate to National Gallery in Wash­ington DC. A large altar­piece, Assump­t­ion of the Virgin with Sts Michael & Benedict, is in Metrop­olitan Mus NY.

In 1937, Goudstikker married Viennese opera singer Désirée von Halban Kurz, daughter of famed Jewish soprano Selma Kurz. They had a son, and in 1939, with the imminent German occupation of Netherlands, Goudstikker applied for American visas. As the Germans advanced on Ams­terdam in May 1940, the family fled. While escap­ing via the English Channel aboard SS Bodegr­aven, Goudstikker fell into an open hatch on the deck, broke his neck and died. His widow Désirée and only child Edo both got safely to North America.

In June 1940, Goudstikker's employee Arie ten Broek became company dir­ector; then in July two of Goudstikker's employ­ees were paid to sell all the remaining works of art to Reichsmarschall  Hermann Goering. Goering took c800 of the most valuable works back to Germany where they were displayed in several residences. The art gal­l­­ery went to Goering's man German banker Alois Miedl who paid to acquire title to the J Goudstikker trade name and to Goud­stikker's real estate in Amsterdam and elsewhere.

With Goudstikker's respected trade name, Miedl made a fortune marketing art in Nazi Germany. Parts of the collection were taken over by East Prussian gov­ernor Erich Koch and one of these paint­ings, Cottages by the Can­al by Jan van Goyen, is still in the Gdańsk National Museum.

After WW2 the Allied forces recovered many treas­ures from Ger­many and gave them to the Dutch government to ret­urn­ them to their right­ful owners. The Dutch recorded 3,000+ plundered works that came back to the country post-war.

From 1946 the widow Désirée Goudstikker asked the Dutch government for the family coll­ection. In Aug 1952, after a 7-year legal battle, the widow received some works of art while the rem­aining objects, classed as Dutch National Property, were divided amongst the State museums.

In 1996-8, Dutch investigative journal­ists drew int­ernational att­ention to the post-war restit­ution of stolen art and the ignored rights of the legal owners. Eventually the issues were docum­ented in Pieter den Holl­ander’s 1998 book, The Goudstikker Case. The Goudstikker heir, his widowed daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, then sued for possession of the works. Unfortunately her claim was rejected by the State Sec­ret­ary of Education, Cult­ure and Science.

Ferdinand Bol,

Louise-Marie Gonzaga de Nevers, 1645

The Jewish Museum, Manhattan

Salomon van Ruysdael

River Landscape with Ferry, 1649
Nat Gall Art, Washington

Netherlands was long considered a leader in returning Nazi-looted art. But official in­vestigations confirmed some mis­hand­ling of postwar restit­ut­ions; as a result, the government created the Dutch Restit­utions Committee in 2002. It reviewed claims to art treas­ures in the govern­ment’s possession and to oversee efforts to ret­urn such works. In Dec 2005, the Committee DID restore 202 out of 267 paint­ings taken by Goering to the rightful heir, Marei von Saher, including Salomon van Ruysdael’s River Landscape with Ferry, once held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.

Some pieces were not restored to von Saher in 2006 because the Dutch government no longer had them. Von Saher sued unsuccessfully in a US court for their return. None­the­less in gratitude, von Saher donated one returned painting, van der Helst’s 1645 Child on Deathbed, to the Dutch state.

NB 1,000+ works from this collection remain to be found.  

Dutch officials established a pro­cess for dealing with heirless art or work whose owner is unident­if­ied. Such piec­es would be returned to a Jewish heritage institution. And Neth­er­lands’ Minister of Education, Culture and Science said the Dutch government is also aiming to repatriate objects from its holdings that were plundered from former colonies.

Read the excellent book Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goud­stikker by Peter Sutton, 2008