Stolen World War II porcelain found in Dutch museums

Parts of Meissen porcelain tableware, which may have been stolen from a German Jewish family by the Nazis, have been located in Dutch museums, media reported Wednesday.

The tableware are part of a 435-piece crockery set that Stadtholder Willem V, then the Netherlands head of state, received as a gift from the Dutch East Indies Company in 1774, Xinhua reported.

A total of 26 parts of the collection were later bought by the German-Jewish banking family Gutmann.

Under pressure from the Nazis, the pieces were auctioned off in April 1934.

Dutch art and antiquities research agency Artiaz now claims it has traced 15 of the crockery items, based on old auction documents.

According to Artiaz, six of them are now part of the collection at the former royal Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, now a national museum, and six pieces are at the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen.

In addition, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Regional Museum in Tiel and the Historical Museum in Deventer possess one piece each of the crockery set.