Dutch royals to return Nazi-confiscated art

The Dutch royal family will return a painting in its collection after discovering that the Nazis confiscated it from Jewish owners, the palace said on Tuesday.

The discovery was made by independent research commissioned by the palace in 2012 into art objects acquired since the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933.

“A Jewish collector was forced in 1942 to hand over the painting ‘Haagse Bos with view over Huis Ten Bosch Palace’ by Joris van der Haagen to the (Nazi) bank Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co in Amsterdam,” the report said.

After the war and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands “the painting ended up with a Dutch art dealer where Queen Juliana bought it in 1960 without knowing about its history,” it said.

A royal art association has made contact with the descendants of the original owner with an eye to restitution, it said, adding that no further details would be provided because of privacy concerns.

Earlier this month an El Greco painting looted by the Nazis was returned to the heirs of its rightful owner. The “Portrait of a Gentleman” was given back to the heirs of Jewish banker and collector collector Julius Priester, a prominent industrialist who fled Vienna in March 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed Austria.

The El Greco was seized by the Gestapo in 1944. Priester tried unsuccessfully to locate the painting after the war, and the search by his family and heirs continued after his death.