Nazi-Looted Painting Salvaged From Amsterdam Rubbish Pile Is Set To Be Returned
5July 14, 2026
A Nazi-looted painting that once belonged to Jewish Dutch art dealerJacques Goudstikker, has beenidentifiedand will now be returned to his heirs. The painting had been in the possession of Amsterdam resident Robert van der Hoek, who found it in a trash pile in the city decades ago. “I took it with me because I thought it was a shame, and I put it in the cellar. It stood there for years,” he told Dutch newspaperDe Telegraaf.
Van der Hoek had no idea about the painting’s history until he read astoryinDe Telegraafearlier this year about the discovery of another Goudstikker-owned piece by Dutch artist Toon Kelder titledPortrait of a Young Girl. The painting had been hanging in the house of the granddaughter ofHendrik Seyffardt, a leader of the Dutch Waffen-SS.
Upon hearing the news, van der Hoek remembered that the painting he salvaged, which portrays the interior of Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk, also had a label on the back that said “Collectie Goudstikker” and an inventory number of 1,647. Van der Hoek sent photos of the painting and the label to De Telegraaf, and the newspaper contacted Dutch art detective Arthur Brand—who identified the earlier Goudstikker painting—to authenticate the work.
Brand confirmed that the painting was part of Goudstikker’s collection with the help of a black notebook that was once owned by the collector and catalogued much of his holdings. He believes the painting, likely by Dutch Golden Age painter Hendrick van der Burgh, was acquired by Goudstikker around 1925.
Goudstikker fled the Netherlands during the Nazi German invasion of the country in 1940. He left most of his collection of Old Masters paintings behind, and it was soon looted by the Nazis, with several ending up in the hands of Nazi commander Hermann Göring. So far, 202 of the over one thousand works in Goudstikker’s collection, were returned by the Dutch government to his heirs in 2006, but many still remain unaccounted for.