Painting stolen by Nazis returned to over 100-year-old woman after 75 years. Now going to auction

After more than 70 years, a painting has returned to the home of its rightful owner, 101-year-old Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck. The painting had in fact been looted by the Nazis from a bank vault in the city of Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1944. In the mid-1950s it had appeared in a gallery in Düsseldorf and then again sold at auction in 1969 in Amsterdam, before being purchased by a private collector in 1971. It was the latter who finally returned the painting to its owner family, which was recovered in 2021 thanks to the Commission for Looted Art in Europe.

The painting in question is a portrait of Dutch merchant Steven Wolters executed by Caspar Netscher, aDutch Golden Age painter, in 1683. The Portrait was in the dining room of Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck’s house, and for many decades the lady had been looking for it but in vain. It was part of her father’s collection, which she was very fond of.

It is the second painting found and returned to the family in recent years through the Commission for Looted Art in Europe: the first painting was Jacob Ochtervelt’s The Oyster Meal, which was returned in 2017.

Now the recently returned work will go to auction at Sotheby ’s on July 1 with an estimate of between £30,000 and £50,000.

Image courtesy of the family of Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck.

Painting stolen by Nazis returned to over 100-year-old woman after 75 years. Now going to auction

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