Aged of 101 Dutch reunited with the painting that was stolen from her father the Nazis during second world war, but she decided to sell it through Sotheby’s in London to her family can benefit from the proceeds.
Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerk, non-practicing Baptist who joined the Dutch Resistance never gave up hope of find a portrait from 1683 of Stephen Walters by Caspar Netscher, a Dutch master whose paintings in National Gallery, London.
He hung in her childhood home in Arnhem, much loved possession of her father, Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder, doctor and director of in the city’s children’s hospital, who went into hiding after refusing to follow Nazi orders.
After Germany invasion of Holland, he kept the painting in Amsterdam bank in Arnhem, thinking that it would be safe there, but the Nazis broke into vaults and seized it in the midst of widespread robbery, destruction and ruin.
In 1944, Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden. in which the British 1st Airborne Division attempted to capture a strategically important road bridge over Rhine at Arnhem as shown in the classic film “A Bridge Too Far”.
In the midst of chaos of war, the picture disappeared without a trace for 75 years old. But detective work London Commission for stolen art in Europe found that he appeared in the gallery of Düsseldorf. in mid-1950s, was auctioned off in Amsterdam in 1969 and acquired private collector in Germany in 1971. Negotiations with the collector led to the painting being returned to Bischoff van Heemskerck. in 2021.
Remembering the moment she saw it againshe told The Guardian: “I was blown away.”
Her father died in 1969. He would be “so happy it came back”, she said.
But keeping the picture for six months, she sent it to Sotheby’s in London, which will put it up for auction on July 6th It is expected to bring in between £30,000 and £50,000.
She said, “I had five brothers and sisters. There are 20 descendants and they are very cute, so I never had the feeling that this is mine. It’s from family”.
hearing of Paintings recovery Christopher Marinello, leading restitution lawyer, said, “It’s wonderful for heirs recover something after such a long time. It is a pity that few collectors and dealers are willing to cooperate with heirs or come forward voluntarily.”
Bischoff van Heemskerk was ‘a little’ emotional over picture, because the memories of the war came flooding back back through it.
She remembered how the SS officers turned up in family home, just after her father fled because like “many friends of our [who] were taken, he refused [follow] orders from the Germans.
She is added: “My father almost got arrested secret police of the Germans… I opened the door when they came for his. They were so furious… We had to leave… At night we took what we could.”
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She is joined Resistance, becoming a courier, and wanted to give refuge for Jews in her home, but that would be too dangerous, because both of her father as well as brother the Germans were looking for.
She plays down her courage: “You would have done the same, I sure. We hoped that we win war, and we did everything to help”.
