Video Unboxing - Cultural goods WOII

I am Maurice Klok.

I’ve been running a classic Volkswagen business for 25 years.
That's my first passion.

And my second passion,
that is the passion for World War II vehicles.

Since childhood...
I was already looking for bullets here in Ede on the Ginkelse Heide.

Of course, here you had the Battle of Arnhem and my father went...
at some point he retired and had the choice of: am I going to go horse riding,
because that's what the left neighbor did and the...
right-hand neighbor had a vehicle from World War II.

Luckily he chose that vehicle and then company number two started:
Airborne Garage where we are now.

( In the summer of 2022, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands received a remarkable request. )
( A private collector reported a possibly looted or missing painting. )
( The work had been kept in a crate since the Second World War. )
( The crate turned out to be a time capsule. )
( Which was opened for the first time in nearly 80 years. )

About a year ago…
I went looking for items again, and I ended up at an outdoor flea market in Belgium.

There were lots of people there shining flashlights on something, and I asked the seller: “What do you have there?”
He said: “Well, yesterday we had to clear out a paper factory near Stuttgart,
and in the basement there was this crate with a painting inside.”
And it was probably left there during the Second World War.
Or at least it was packed up and hidden there at some point during the war.

So I made an offer to the seller on my phone,
silently through the screen so as not to attract the attention of the other interested buyers.
He shook my hand,
I paid him, and then he told the others that it had been sold.

And here the painting has been lying…
waiting for a year among the old car parts.

Yes, this is a newspaper clipping that fell out of it.
It mentions the Stuttgarter Morgenblatt.
And here you can see the factory where the painting was found.
This is from January 1945.

I know the images from the final phase of the war,
where people were burning their furniture just to keep the stove going.
So if, during such a period, someone used valuable wood that...
could otherwise have been used to heat their home and keep their family warm.
But using it to build a crate to protect a painting,
then you almost have to assume it must have been something valuable.

So I started calling art dealers and galleries, and they all said:
“Take it out of the crate and we’ll happily assess what you’ve got.”
But that didn’t feel right.
And luckily I didn’t do that.

Eventually, a friend of mine said: “I know someone who restores art.”

After about a week she came to have a look, and I could see her come completely alive.
She said: “May I congratulate you? You’ve found a masterpiece.”

Then she shone a light through the panel underneath, and I actually saw
that cheerful expression on her face turn pale again, because she could also see
that the painting had been significantly damaged.

She recognised it as a religious painting and...
she estimated, if I remember correctly, that it was a sixteenth-century work,
but in a very poor condition and likely requiring a great deal of restoration.

Then she said: “You should really contact the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
If the crate itself is also important to you,
they will know the proper way to approach this.”

I am Annelies Kool,
an advisor on cultural goods from the Second World War,
and I conduct provenance research.

I am Perry Schier,
also an advisor on cultural goods from the Second World War,
I also do provenance research.

We answer information requests from anyone
who wants to know more about art from the period 1933–1945 and the history behind it.
We are, so to speak, the point of contact.

Some time ago we received an information request.
It’s a remarkable story.
A crated painting, the contents of which were unknown.

At that moment I couldn’t really help him any further.
That’s only possible if you know what’s inside,
and Maurice didn’t have the facilities to examine it.

That’s basically how it ended up here now.
Annelies told me about it and I immediately thought:
“Wow, what is this?” It’s amazing, of course.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I think I’ll start on this side.

Here you can see a dark discolouration on the wood.
That’s probably water damage.
The crate probably stood upright on this edge.
You may also be able to see that reflected in the painting.

What struck me was that the wooden crate around the painting was custom made.
Probably with the intention of preserving the painting as well as possible and
perhaps protecting it from bombings and other war damage.

Right, now we’ll place it all the way at the back.

All plants and grass.
It actually looks quite good.

I had expected that today we would open a damaged painting
of which almost nothing had survived.
But we approached it in a very careful way.
Board by board, more and more was revealed.
And the more I saw, the more excited I became.

Yes, now you can clearly see that it depicts the Baptism of Christ.
This is the figure of Christ.
It seems very likely that John the Baptist is standing here.
And that this is Christ standing in the River Jordan, being baptised.

Yes, it is indeed a painting of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is holding a shell in his hands with
which he scoops up the water and pours it over Christ’s head.

On the left we see another scene.
That is probably John the Baptist again, wearing a sheepskin.
He is pointing towards the sky.
He is announcing Christ there on the left panel.

This also looks like a figure of John the Baptist.
He has a staff here.
Here he appears to be preaching.
But there is quite a lot of paint loss,
so it isn’t very easy to interpret.

And on the right-hand side there is a somewhat more difficult scene to interpret,
but it may depict the beheading of John the Baptist.
But we would need to investigate that further.

There is a lot of paint loss and significant moisture damage.
The wooden panels are also all loose.

That’s unfortunate. This is a very poor angle.
But a number of important areas are still reasonably well preserved.
It will require a great deal of restoration work.

And in terms of painting style, in terms of use of color,
you start thinking of Antwerp, of the Southern Netherlands.
First quarter of the seventeenth century.

Dutch, would you say?
“Southern Netherlandish.”
I wouldn’t rule out German, but otherwise I think it is Southern Netherlandish,
in other words, Flemish.

And these little figures here.
This one is wearing a hat that you often see in Flanders.
A sort of flat disc shape.

Today we had all the specialists together in one place:
the furniture restorer, the art historian,
the painting conservators,
and the provenance research team.

Yes, that felt very reassuring.
I had complete confidence in you
that today it would finally be unpacked in the proper way.

Based on what we see here now, we could search by subject matter.
And perhaps if Eric can provide more information about the maker and the dating…
I’ll need to do some research for that.
I see what you mean.

If there is more data, then I certainly see opportunities to look further.

Today has exceeded all expectations in terms of excitement.
I’m still a bit flabbergasted.

I don’t think the story ends here.
I suspect there will be a sequel.

Yes, this is another work that has surfaced and that we will now investigate further.
I’m hopeful that we may still be able to determine
where this work came from and how it ended up there.

Many countries are currently working to unlock information about artworks
that were lost during the Second World War.

The newspapers that were found with it were also interesting,
because they already hinted at a possible location
from which the object might have originated.
A starting point: Stuttgart.

So certainly in that city.
I will see whether we have researchers there who might be able to assist us.

There is also a St John’s Church there.
Who knows, perhaps there is a connection between the painting and such a church.

I’ve been doing this work for 20, 25 years now.
I have never experienced anything like this.
This is truly unique.

( Together with fellow provenance researchers in the Netherlands and abroad, searches were conducted for clues. )
( To this day, the identity of the artist remains unknown. )
( The identity of the original owner also remains unknown. )
( The digitisation of new archives may reveal new information in the future. )

Please contact the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands with any enquiries over cultural objects in the period 1933–1945 that are looted, confiscated, or sold under duress.

Please get in touch via: restitutie@cultureelerfgoed.nl