Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder (6 April 1887, Amsterdam - 3 June 1969, Rheden) [2] [3] [4] was the director of the children's hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He was the son of Van Gelder Zonen paper manufacturer Pieter Smidt van Gelder (1851-1934) owner of van de Vereenigde Koninklijke Papierfabrieken der firma Van Gelder Zonen, and Maria Cornelia Kaars Sijpesteijn. Joan Smidt van Gelder Studied Medicine at Rijks Universiteit Leiden, and lived at Breestraat 144, in Leiden. After an arrest warrant was issued by the German occupied forces for his arrest, his home at the Velperweg in Arnhem was commandeered by the Ortskommandantur. His brother Pieter Smidt van Gelder also was an avid art collector.
In 1944, after Operation Market Garden during the Second World War, Nazi forces led by Helmut Temmler looted Arnhem and stole 14 paintings that Smidt van Gelder had sent to a bank in the town for safe keeping. Three other paintings that had been hidden under paving slabs were saved. The Oyster Meal by Jacob Ochtervelt was one of the paintings stolen. In 2017, The Mansion House in London, in whose collection the painting by then resided, agreed to return the painting to Smidt van Gelder's daughter, Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck, after an investigation by Anne Webber of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe established its looted status. [5] [6] The Oyster Meal was restituted to Smidt van Gelder's heir on November 6, 2017. [7]
Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter, a journal whose name later became synonymous with the circle of artists collaborating in it.
Max Stern (1904-1987) was a German born art collector, dealer and philanthropist of Jewish heritage who fled Nazi persecution. He emigrated to London and then Canada.
The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.
Hermann Max Pechstein was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and a member of the Die Brücke group. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and his art was classified as Degenerate Art by the Nazis. More than 300 paintings were removed from German Museums during the Nazi era.
Hans Thoma was a German painter.
The Lentos Art Museum is a museum of modern art in Linz, Austria, which opened in May 2003 as the successor to the Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz.
The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John by Hendrick ter Brugghen is an oil painting, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was probably painted c. 1625 as an altarpiece for a Catholic schuilkerk, a "hidden church" or "church in the attic", in the Calvinist Dutch United Provinces, probably Utrecht. When discovered in a bombed out church in South Hackney, London in 1956, it was unknown, but by the time it appeared in Sotheby's salesroom in November of that year it was recognized as an important example of Utrecht Caravaggism. It was acquired by the museum in the sale.
Alfred Flechtheim was a German Jewish art dealer, art collector, journalist and publisher persecuted by the Nazis.
The Max Stern Art Restitution Project was initiated as an effort to locate artworks lost by Dr. Max Stern during World War II.
Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps is a painting of Paris' Boulevard Montmartre by Camille Pissarro.
Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris.
Edward Joseph Speelman was an English art dealer. While serving in the British Army during the Second World War, he arrested Artur Seyss-Inquart, the Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands.
The Oyster Eater or Girl Offering Oysters is a small oil-on-panel painting by Jan Steen dating to c.1658–1660. Since 1936, it has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in the Hague. It is a genre painting that demonstrates Steen's intricate style and use of domestic settings. It also shows Steen's use of symbolism with oysters to create a theme of earthly lust.
Taco Scheltema, or Take Pieters Scheltema was a Dutch portrait painter.
The Oyster Meal is an oil on canvas genre painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jacob Ochtervelt, dated to around 1664–65. It depicts a man offering a plate of oysters to a woman he is trying to seduce.
E. & A. Silberman Galleries was a commercial art gallery in New York founded by Elkan and Abris Silberman.
Alexander Vömel, or Voemel, was a German gallery owner and Nazi party member who took over the gallery of the Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim when it was Aryanized in 1933.
The Foxes is a 1913 painting by German painter Franz Marc. It was held by the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf until returned to the heirs of Kurt Grawi in 2022, and sold at auction by them.
Kurt Grawi was a German Jewish businessman and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis.
Dr Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder, Arnhem; From whose safe in the Amsterdam Bank, Arnhem, looted by Helmut Temmler, Head of the Gaukommando Düsseldorf, in 1945 and taken to Düsseldorf; With Galerie Peiffer, Düsseldorf, 1950s; With Galerie Kurt Meissner, Zurich, 1965; From whom acquired by Ambassador J. William Middendorf II, Washington, by 1967 until 1969 or later, by whom sold to Edward Speelman; With Edward Speelman Ltd., London, by whom sold to Harold Samuel, London, 1971; Bequeathed to the City of London Corporation, 1987; By whom restituted to the heirs of Dr J.H. Smidt van Gelder on 6 November 2017.