Dealer wonders if painting looted by Nazis

ST. LOUIS -- A yellowed sticker attached to a painting antiques dealer Michael Hirschfeld bought for $900 was the first clue it might be more than an ordinary piece of art.

The sticker says "Collectie Goudstikker." That's left Hirschfeld wondering if it once belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch Jew who fled the Netherlands in 1940, leaving his vast collection behind. Much of that collection wound up in the hands of German Field Marshal Hermann Goering.

And there is an added twist. Written on the label, in pencil, is "Netscher." That could mean the painting is a work by Dutch artist Casper Netscher (1635-1684), who, while not in the same league as Rembrandt, was an accomplished portrait painter in the Netherlands.

"Maybe there is some rational reason for this popping up here," Hirschfeld told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But I think we owe it to ourselves to find out."

Bought at auction

Hirschfeld bought the painting at an auction in October, where it was listed in the catalog as "Dutch School, 19th century, Woman with attendant, framed." An assistant at Hirschfeld's antiques shop noticed the printed label.

"I'm not mad at anyone and I'm not trying to get rich off this," Hirschfeld said. "I just want to find out exactly what this painting is and what the history is behind it."

That could prove difficult. The label could be a fake, or might have been attached before the start of World War II. The house that sold the painting, Phillips-Selkirk in suburban Clayton, also extents confidentiality to all of its consignors.

"I don't want to cast aspersions, but just because the sticker is on there doesn't verify anything," said Malcolm Ivey, the managing director at Phillips-Selkirk. "What you really need to do, if possible, is a resonance (ownership history) of his collection and see if this was ever part of it.

Goudstikker abandoned more than 1,200 works of art when he fled the Netherlands. He died a few days after leaving home in a fall while aboard a ship. Much of the art, left in the care of non-Jewish employees at Goudstikker's gallery, would end up belonging to Goering.

Goudstikker wife, Desi, tried to reassemble the collection when she returned to Europe following the war. Most had disappeared and the 300 painting the Dutch government did recover were not returned to the family.

"We were surprised to hear from them, but in a positive way," says Charlene von Saher, a granddaughter of Jacques Goudstikker, who lives in Greenwich, Conn. "We'd like to know if there is some connection -- even if my grandfather sold it before the war. We'd just like to make sure what the facts are surrounding the painting."

Irek Szelag, a conservation artist who cleaned the painting for Hirschfeld, said he thinks it could be a 17th-century painting.

"But I have to emphasize 'I think,"' Szelag said. "I can only speak from my experience, but it looks authentic to me."