Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck, a non-practicing Baptist who joined the Dutch Resistance, had never given up hope of finding a 1683 portrait of Steven Wolters by Caspar Netscher, a Dutch craftsman whose paintings are in the National Gallery in Leuven. She was hanged at her orphanage in Arnhem, a much-loved property of her father, Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder, a doctor and director of the town’s children’s hospital, who went into hiding after refusing to accept Nazi orders. After the German invasion of the Netherlands, he had stored the painting at the Bank of Amsterdam in Arnhem, thinking it would be safe there, but the Nazis invaded the treasuries and occupied it, amid widespread looting, destruction and destruction. In 1944, Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden, in which Britain’s 1st Airborne Division attempted to seize the strategically important bridge over the Rhine to Arnhem, as seen in the classic film A Bridge Too Far. Amid the chaos of the war, the painting disappeared without a trace for 75 years. But the London-based Commission of Europe’s Looting Detective, which he found in a Düsseldorf gallery in the mid-1950s, was auctioned off in Amsterdam in 1969 and acquired by a private collector in Germany in 1971. with the collector led to the return of the painting to Bischoff van Heemskerck in 2021. Caspar Netscher’s painting hanging in the house of Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck. Photo: Sotheby’s Recalling the moment he saw it again, he told the Guardian: “I was surprised.” Her father died in 1969. He would be “so happy to be back,” she said. However, having the painting valuable for six months, he sent it to Sotheby’s in London, which will auction it on July 6. It is estimated that it will reach from 30,000 to 50,000 £. He said: “I had five brothers and sisters. They are 20 offspring and they are very sweet, so I never had the feeling that it was mine. He’s from the family. “ Listening to the recovery of the painting, Christopher Marinello, a leading rehabilitation lawyer, said: “It is wonderful for the heirs to recover something after such a long time. “It is a pity that not many collectors and merchants are willing to work with heirs or to volunteer.” Bischoff van Heemskerck was “a little” emotional with the painting because memories of the war had flooded back through it. She recalled SS officers appearing at the family home shortly after her father’s hiding because, like “many of our friends [who] received, refused [follow] orders from the Germans “. He added: “My father was about to be arrested by the German secret police… I opened the door when they came to find him. They were so furious… We had to leave… At night, we got what we could. “ Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST She joined the Resistance, became a courier and wanted to give shelter to the Jews in her house, but it would be very dangerous because both her father and her brother were wanted by the Germans. He underestimates her bravery: “You would do it too, I’m sure. “We hoped to win the war and we did everything we could to help.”
