Court rejects heirs’ bid to reclaim art from the Mauritshuis and The Hague

A Dutch court rejected a bid by collector Abraham Bredius's heirs to void two 1944 bequests and reclaim dozens of paintings and objects from the Mauritshuis and the Museum Bredius. The court ruled that neither museum broke the conditions Bredius set when he left them to the Dutch state and the city of The Hague.

The heirs said the museums failed to keep the works permanently on view and asked that the bequests be canceled so the art would return to the family. The Hague District Court turned down every claim in two rulings dated June 10.

Bredius, who lived from 1855 to 1946, was an art connoisseur and collector who ran the Mauritshuis from 1889 to 1909. In a will drawn up before a Monaco notary on April 26, 1944, he named Joseph Kronig his sole heir and executor, the court’s press office said.

Kronig, who lived from 1887 to 1984, was Bredius’ partner. The plaintiffs are an heir of Kronig and two of that heir’s children.

Bredius left one group of paintings to the state and another to the city. Each carried the same condition in French: “ils devront rester exposés exclusivement dans ledit Musée” — they must stay on display only in the museum named.