Restitution of Nazi-looted Goudstikker art in Netherlands

The Dutch Minister of Education, Culture, and Science has decided to return a 1651 Jan van Goyen painting, ‘Vissers aan de oevers van een plas’ (also referred to as ‘Fishermen by the Lakeshore’), to the heirs of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.

Provenance research and an investigation by the Restitution Committee determined the artwork was “involuntarily lost as a result of circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime.” The painting was moved to Germany and entered the collection of Nazi official Hermann Göring without the consent of Goudstikker’s widow, Dési Goudstikker. The committee noted that transactions were facilitated by a director sympathetic to German buyers, which gave the forced sales an appearance of legality.

Jacques Goudstikker died in 1940 while fleeing to England during the Nazi invasion. The restitution request was submitted by Marei von Saher, the widow of Goudstikker’s son. The decision to return the work from the Mauritshuis museum reflects a broader shift in Dutch policy toward transparency regarding Nazi-looted art.