Paschal Lamb by J. Beuckelaer

Advice concerning the application for restitution of NK 2646

Report number: Rc 1.1

Advice type: NK collection

Advice date: 22 March 2002

Period of loss of ownership: 1933-1940 1940-1945

Original owner: Private individual

Location of loss of ownership: Outside of The Netherlands

NK 2646 – Paschal Lamb by J. Beuckelaer (photo RCE)

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Recommendation

By letter of 8 February 2002 the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science asked the Committee for advice about the decision to be taken concerning the restitution of the “Paschal Lamb”, a painting by J. Beuckelaer (NK 2646).

The facts

The Cultural Heritage Ownership Inspectorate (Inspectie Cultuurbezit) carried out an investigation in connection with the application for restitution filed in June 2001. The findings of the investigation were included in a research report dated 8 November 2001, which was sent to the applicant.

General considerations

The Committee has drawn up its opinion with due regard for the relevant lines of policy issued by the Ekkart Committee and the government, as referred to in the Decree establishing the Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications.
The Committee asked itself whether it is acceptable that an opinion to be issued is influenced by its potential consequences for decisions in other cases. The Committee resolved that such influence cannot be accepted, save cases where special circumstances apply, since allowing such influence would be impossible to justify to the applicant concerned.
The Committee then asked itself how to deal with the circumstance that certain facts can no longer be traced, that certain data has been lost or has not been retrieved, or that evidence can no longer be otherwise compiled. On this issue the Committee believes that, if the problems that have arisen can be attributed at least in part to the lapse of time, the associated risk should be borne by the government, save cases where exceptional circumstances apply.
Finally, the Committee believes that insights and circumstances which, according to generally accepted views, have evidently changed since the Second World War should be granted the status of new facts.

Special considerations

It appears from the aforementioned research report that the Jewish couple B., owners of the painting “Paschal Lamb” by J. Beuckelaer (NK 2646), involuntarily lost possession of that painting between 1938 and 1941.

As confirmed in a letter by the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science dated 16 November 2001, cases involving the sale or involuntary loss of art objects that are directly related to the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 and in Austria from 1938 should, in principle, be assessed against the same criteria as those applied to sales and involuntary losses in the Netherlands from 10 May 1940.

These criteria warrant the conclusion that the application for restitution may be allowed. It is extremely likely that the applicant indeed holds title to the work. In view of current policy on this matter, prescription of the application, which was not previously filed with the appropriate bodies for the restoration of property rights, will not be invoked. In the event that the involuntary loss was accompanied by the involuntary sale of the object, restitution of the proceeds that may have been generated by that transaction cannot be claimed as there are no clues that might help to identify the amount involved.

Conclusion

In view of the above, the Committee advises the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science to return the painting “Paschal Lamb” by J. Beuckelaer (NK 2646) to the B. heirs.

Adopted at the meeting of 25 March 2002.

J.M. Polak (Chairman)
B.J. Asscher (Vice Chairman)
J.Th.M. Bank
J.C.M. Leijten
E.J. van Straaten
H.M. Verrijn Stuart

Summary RC 1.1

“PASCHAL LAMB” BY DE BEUCKELAER (NK 2646)

On 8 February 2002, the State secretary for OCenW asked the Restitutions Committee to issue advice on the decision pending on the application for the restitution of the painting “Paschal Lamb” by De Beuckelaer. In June 2001, the B. heirs had submitted such an application to the Ministry.

Summary of the documentary report

The painting “Paschal Lamb” by the 16th century Flemish painter De Beuckelaer was part of the Dutch national art collection, under inventory number NK 2646. The SNK recovered the work from Germany in 1946, under the assumption that it came from an Amsterdam art dealer who sold it voluntarily during the war. However, it was discovered fairly quickly (in 1950) that this assumption had been incorrect, but the identity of the owner was still a mystery. In 1999 BHG too concluded that the original owner of this painting (NK 2646) was unknown.

In the year 2000, the Austrian Kommission für Provenienzforschung, the equivalent of the Dutch Ekkart Committee, contacted the ICB with information indicating that “Paschal Lamb” was not of Dutch but instead of Austrian provenance. It appeared that up to 1938 the painting had been in the possession of the Austrian Jewish couple B. The investigation established the pre-war ownership of the painting by the couple, thanks to documents from Vienna and a slide of the painting that was in the possession of the family. It proved more difficult to establish how the painting was lost during the war. However, the events were reconstructed step by step, with the help of the B. family.

It turned out that during the course of 1939, just before the family had managed to escape from Austria and make their way to the United States, the painting had been smuggled out of the country. A Dutch friend of the family proved to have been very helpful here. The family’s works of art, including “Paschal Lamb”, were entrusted to an art dealer in Belgium, a service for which the couple apparently even paid a storage charge. Various documents were recovered showing that the Belgian art dealer sold the painting to the German Mühlmann at the end of 1941. In this way, the painting ended up in the Göring collection, from where it was seized by the Allies after the war. Based on the assumption (later shown to be false) that the painting had come from the Netherlands, it was sent to this country and thus ended up in the NK collection. The B. couple, who had by now taken up residence in the United States, were unaware of what had happened to the painting. Until recently, the painting hung in the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht.

Advice

In its advice, decided on in its meeting on 25 March 2002, the Restitutions Committee recommended the restitution of the painting to the B. heirs. The ownership of the painting by the B. couple had been proven and the loss of possession of the painting had to be deemed to be involuntary. In this respect, the committee referred to the recommendation by the Ekkart Committee that loss of possession in Austria from 1938 onwards should fall within the scope of the restitution policy. There could be no question of repayment of any sales proceeds, given the absence of any evidence that this had ever been received.

The State secretary for OCenW adopted this advice and ruled in favour of the restitution of the painting to the B. heirs.