Dutch state buys looted paintings back from heirs

AMSTERDAM, Mar 7 (Reuters) The Dutch state has bought back four 17th century paintings from a collection of looted works that it is returning to the heirs of the original owner, the Culture Ministry said.

The Netherlands agreed last year to return more than 200 paintings worth tens of millions of dollars to the heirs of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled the Netherlands shortly before the German invasion in May 1940.

His collection was looted by the Nazis. After World War Two the Allies returned stolen works of art to the nations from which they were taken but it was left to governments to give the works back to the heirs of those who had been robbed.

Goudstikker's family, which spent decades fighting for the Old Masters, is donating a fifth painting -- ''Child on deathbed'', painted around 1645 by Bartholomeus van der Helst -- to the Dutch state. The ministry is paying 3 million euros for the four works.

''The five paintings represent different genres of Dutch paintings of the 17th century and are an important addition to the Dutch cultural heritage collection,'' the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Hitler's air minister Hermann Goering and his Nazi cohorts looted much of the collection of some 1,300 works Goudstikker left behind.

The collector died shortly afterwards in an accident on the ship he hoped would take him to safety in Britain.

Reuters SY DB0911