Mauritshuis to return Nazi-looted Jan van Goyen painting to Goudstikker heirs

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague will return Jan van Goyen’s 1651 painting, ‘Fishermen by the Lakeshore’, to the heirs of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The decision follows provenance research confirming the 17th-century Dutch oil painting was looted by the Nazis.

Jacques Goudstikker died in 1940 while fleeing to England. His art dealership, which included 1,113 works, was seized without his widow’s consent. The painting was among several artworks transported to Germany and sold into the collection of Nazi official Hermann Göring. The Dutch Restitutions Committee noted that the sales were facilitated by a managing director sympathetic to German buyers, giving the forced transactions an appearance of legality.

Dutch Culture Minister Rianne Letschert accepted the formal advice of the Restitutions Committee to return the work to Marei von Saher, the widow of Goudstikker’s son, Eduard. This move reflects a shift in Dutch restitution policy toward greater transparency and goodwill regarding Nazi-looted art.