Restitutions and Case News :

Old Master painting by Jacob Ochterveld, looted by the Nazis in WW2, restituted to Dutch Smidt van Gelder family by the Lord Mayor of the City of London

 


On 6 November 2017, in a ceremony at The Mansion House, London, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the City of London Corporation restituted Jacob Ochtervelt’s The Oyster Meal to Mrs Charlotte Bischoff von Heemskerck, the 96 year old surviving daughter of the late owner, Dr. J. H. Smidt van Gelder, director of the Children’s Hospital of Arnhem, The Netherlands.

The 17th century painting, looted in 1945, was the subject of a restitution claim submitted by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE), with extensive supporting documentation, earlier this year. CLAE’s research traced the previously unknown history of The Oyster Meal between its seizure and disappearance in January 1945 and its reappearance on the art market in Switzerland in 1965.

For full details, see the Press Release jointly issued by the City of London Corporation and the Commission.