Summary RC 1.31

Wooded landscape with shepherd and cattle by B.C. Koekkoek

In April 2005, two applications were filed with the State Secretary of OCW for restitution of the painting Wooded landscape with shepherd and cattle by B.C. Koekkoek (NK 2944), on loan to a German museum. The applications were submitted in response to a letter from the Origins Unknown Agency to several relatives of Jonas Alexander van Bever, who, an investigation revealed, had put the painting up for auction in 1941. The Committee handled both applications contemporaneously.

    A declaration form from the auction house of Frederik Muller & Co dating from 1946 was found in the archives of the Netherlands Art Property Foundation (SNK), in which the voluntary sale, on 11 July 1941, of a ‘Wooded landscape’ by B.C. Koekkoek was reported. The painting was sold to a German firm. There was no mention of the consigner. In 1951, the SNK’s successor, the Bureau for Restoration Payments and the Restoration of Property (Hergo), asked the auction house who had put the painting up for sale. The auction house stated that it had been sent in by ‘J.A. van Bever, broker in Amsterdam at the time (since deceased)’ and that the painting had been sold for NLG 2,900. There was no evidence in the archive that Hergo later contacted Van Bever’s heirs.

    Further investigation into J.A. van Bever revealed that he was a broker of Jewish extraction who lived in Amsterdam with his wife in the early years of the occupation. After the occupying forces had issued decree 48/1941 on 12 March 1941, also known as the ‘Orderfor the Removal of Jews from the Business Sector’, Van Bever was no longer in a position to conduct his business. He was also forced to hand in his assets to looting organisation Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co, as evidenced by documents found in the archives of the Netherlands Property Administration Institute. The Van Bever couple, their daughter and their son-in-law perished in Auschwitz around 17 September 1943. Their house was cleared out by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s special ‘plundering’ unit).

    Given these facts, the Restitutions Committee concluded in its recommendation of 3 July 2006 that Van Bever was the owner of the claimed work in 1941. Although no further details emerged as to the circumstances in which Van Bever had sold the painting, the Committee concluded that there was no evidence that he had sold the painting of his own free will. ‘On the contrary,’ the Committee wrote, ‘given the fact that he was no longer permitted to conduct his business in the course of 1941, it would seem obvious that Van Bever was forced to sell the painting in the summer of 1941 in order to support his family.’

    With reference to the third recommendation on private art property by the Ekkart Committee, by virtue of which it is assumed that the sale of a work of art by a Jewish private party in the Netherlands after 10 May 1940 is to be considered a forced sale, unless explicitly demonstrated otherwise, the Committee recommended that the claimed work be returned to the heirs of Van Bever.
The Minister adopted this recommendation on 29 September 2006.

Read the complete recommendation

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