The Hague pays for Nazi-looted artwork

Bredius Museum in The Hague

The Hague has paid the heir of a Jewish art dealer for a painting that was looted by the Nazis.

Marei von Saher, the daughter-in-law and sole heir of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, will receive $1.4 million from The Hague for her half of Jan Steen’s “The Marriage of Tobias and Sarah,” and will donate the work to the Bredius Museum in The Hague.

The painting was divided into two parts; Goudstikker had owned the left side of the painting and The Hague owned the right side. The two pieces were reunited by art restorers in 1996.

Goudstikker died while escaping Amsterdam on a cargo ship in 1940. He had left about 1,400 pieces of art in his gallery, which was looted by the Nazi leader Hermann Goering. The works were given to the Dutch government after the war.

Von Saher recovered 202 pieces of artwork from the Dutch national collection in 2006.