[MSN] Gerrit Dou's Astronomer by Candlelight is familiar to any fan of 17th-century Dutch masters. But if a recent claim by heirs to one of the most prominent World War II-era Dutch art dealers succeeds, Dou's painting will be taken from Leiden's De Lakenhal Museum and returned to the family of Nathan Katz. In all, Katz' four children are claiming 225 paintings and two tapestries from museums and institutions throughout the Netherlands.

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Nazi World War Art Claim Made
Monday, Oct. 01, 2007
By Lauren Comiteau

Gerrit Dou's /Astronomer by Candlelight/ is familiar to any fan of 
17th-century Dutch masters. But if a recent claim by heirs to one of the 
most prominent World War II-era Dutch art dealers succeeds, Dou's 
painting will be taken from Leiden's De Lakenhal Museum and returned to 
the family of Nathan Katz. In all, Katz' four children are claiming 225 
paintings and two tapestries from museums and institutions throughout 
the Netherlands.

"These are quite important collector paintings," says De Lakenhal's 
chief curator Christiaan Vogelaar of the seven disputed works at his 
museum. Although his museum has returned art stolen or purchased by the 
Nazis before, Vogelaar says the Katz claim came as a surprise. "People 
thought it was over because of the settlement after the war," says 
Vogelaar, referring to the 28 paintings returned to the Katz family in 
the 1940s. They include Rembrandt's /Portrait of a Man,/ which is 
thought to have been bartered by Nathan in exchange for visas for his 
extended family and his mother's release from the Dutch concentration 
camp, Westerbork.

The family's claim is the largest ever made to the Dutch government. 
After the war, it reclaimed many works of art stolen or bought by the 
Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands. Destitute and trying to 
build up its coffers, the government discouraged claims, wanting 
returning Jewish families to buy back their art instead. It was an 
impossible feat for many. Claims were dismissed as thousands of works of 
art held by the state were loaned to Dutch institutions, many 
prominently on display for decades in national museums as their families 
tried to get them back.

Under pressure, the government set up the Restitution Committee in 2001 
to advise it on the return of cultural assets seized or involuntarily 
sold during the Occupation. As of this summer, 89 restitution claims had 
been made, 45 of which have been reported on by the Committee. The 
government has so far followed the Committee's advice in all cases, some 
75 percent favorably resolved for the claimants. "They've made a big 
effort to make right what was done wrong," says Joel Cahen, Director of 
the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. Ministry of Culture spokesman 
Bob van het Klooster says people can submit claims indefinitely, 
although they expect the Katz' are the last of the big claims. "There 
aren't any more big art dealers left who had to flee."

It will take at least a year for the Committee to go through the Katz 
claim. By all accounts, the Katz case is more complex than most 
restitution claims. Nathan and his brother Benjamin were not just 
private owners, but dealers with a thriving art gallery in their 
hometown of Dieren in the east of the country. They continued to buy and 
sell art throughout the war, even if from Basel, Switzerland, where 
Nathan moved his family in 1942. Many of their dealings were with Nazi 
art procurer Alois Miedl, who bought art for Hermann Goering and others. 
"Everyone says Nathan Katz's sales were voluntary, that he 
collaborated," says Cees van Hoore, a reporter for the Haarlems Dagblad 
who broke the story of the Katz claim last week. "But no one can explain 
why Nathan fled to Switzerland. What would have happened if he hadn't 
sold them?"

In the end, the Katz claim will hinge on whether they sold voluntarily 
or not. The family says it's clear: any sale between German 
intermediaries and Jews during the war years was forced. But according 
to the rules of the Restitution Committee, only sales by individuals 
under duress made after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in May 1940 
are unquestionably considered involuntary. For dealers, the bar is 
higher, all the more so because they themselves often bought from other 
Jewish people desperate to flee. It is the original owners who are 
entitled to the disputed works, which is up to the Committee to determine.

For the museums that stand to lose some of their most prized works, it's 
all a tad bittersweet. The Frans Hal Museum in Haarlem has eight Golden 
Century paintings from the Katz collection on long-term loan from the 
national collection. They are works of "enormous importance," says Louis 
Pirenne, the museum's head of public affairs. "Paintings like these are 
important to the mid-scale museums in the Netherlands. We buy around 
these centerpieces in our collection." Although the loss would be huge, 
Pirenne says his museum respects the judgments of the Restitution 
Committee. "We've always realized we don't own them." But determining 
who does is proving a lot harder.

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