The Netherlands is confronting its history of Nazi occupation – but many stolen objects remain unreturned

The painting Portrait of a Young Girl by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, stolen from the world-famous Goudstikker collection by the Nazis, was discovered in the house of the descendants of a notorious Dutch SS collaborator. Photograph: Arthur Brand/AFP

Several months ago, the Dutch art detective Arthur Brand was surprised to be contacted by a man who had recently made an uncomfortable discovery about his family’s wartime past: he had learned that he descended from Hendrik Seyffardt, a Dutch general who led a volunteer Waffen-SS unit and one of the Netherlands’ most senior Nazi collaborators.

But there was more: the man had also discovered that a painting by the Dutch artist Toon Kelder, looted by the Nazis from the renowned collection of the Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, remained in the possession of the Seyffardt family.