Netherlands Identifies More Than 30 Pieces of Nazi-Looted Property Owned by the Government

A special committee assembled by the Netherlands to examine if the Dutch government owns Nazi-looted property in its national collections said it has identified dozens of items that will be returned to its rightful owners — mostly Jewish families — if possible.

“The results have already exceeded all expectations,” Dolf Muller, of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, told the Dutch publication RTL Nieuws. “We had thought that we would eventually be able to return a handful of works to the original owners, but we have now already found more than 30 pieces for which this can happen. Almost all of them are Jewish families. And the research will continue until the end of 2025.”

So far, Dutch investigators have examined roughly 800 objects — including paintings, furniture and tableware — but they are not able to trace back the origins of all items. All of the property is being checked to see if it was stolen by Nazis and whether the objects can be returned to their original owners.

“We will never be able to undo that suffering, but we can do as much as possible about it,” said  Researcher Simone van Wijk, who is also part of the Cultural Heritage Agency. “By returning as many objects as possible to these people. A piece of family history.”

The team from the Cultural Heritage Agency — which is an executive body of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science — has been for the last year examining hundreds of pieces in the Netherlands Art Property Collection that were taken by the Nazis during World War II and given by Germany to the Netherlands after the war. Some of these items have hung in the country’s national museums, embassies, the Senate, House of Representatives and other government buildings.

“We will never know who the owner or heirs are of many objects,” van Wijk added. “If you think you are on the right track, but an archive document is missing, you have to leave it at that. That is sometimes quite difficult. You want as many pieces as possible put back where they belong.”

Since World War II, the Dutch government has returned nearly a thousand Nazi-looted artworks to their original owners, which have been mostly Jewish families, according to RTL News. They include a famous painting by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky that was taken from a museum in the Netherlands last year and given to the relatives of the late Berlin-based collector Johanna Margarethe Stern-Lippmann

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