1. Jacques Goudstikker was a Jewish Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands when it was invaded by Nazi Germany during World War II, leaving three furnished properties and an extensive and significant art collection including over 1200 paintings, many of which had been previously catalogued as "Old Masters".
Between the two World Wars, Jacques Goudstikker had been the most important Dutch dealer of Old Master paintings, according to Peter C Sutton, executive director and CEO of the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science.
Jacques Goudstikker was born in Amsterdam as the son of the art dealer Eduard Jacques Goudstikker.
Jacques Goudstikker studied at the commercial school in Amsterdam, and more intensely with Wilhelm Martin and William Vogelsang at Leiden and Utrecht.
Jacques Goudstikker rose above his contemporaries, presenting works from the Dutch Golden Age alongside panels by 14th century, 15th century and 16th century Dutch, Flemish, German and Italian painters, mixing paintings, sculptures, carpets, and other works of art together, in the sophisticated style of Wilhelm von Bode of Berlin, much emulated in London, Paris, and New York City.
Jacques Goudstikker's taste extended to the design of his catalogs, which were minor works of art in themselves.
Jacques Goudstikker staged an exhibit of Dutch and Flemish paintings, including five van Goghs, two van Dongens, and a Mondrian, together with a group of 17th century works including a wooded landscape by Philips Koninck, at the Anderson Gallery in New York City in 1923, organized through the Dutch Kamer van Koophandel; the Committee of Patrons included the wives of such upper class notables as T J Oakley Rhinelander and Cortland S Van Rensselaer.
Jacques Goudstikker was forced to economize on production of his catalogs, but he still managed to organize a Rubens exhibition in 1933, as well as what may have been his ultimate achievement, participating in the exhibition of Italian Paintings in Dutch Collections at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1934, where he personally showed Queen Wilhelmina the exhibits.
Parts of the Jacques Goudstikker collection were taken over by Gauleiter Erich Koch; one of these paintings, the Cottages by the canal by Jan van Goyen, is on display at the National Museum, Gdansk, which declined a restitution in 2020.
Subsequently, Jacques Goudstikker's heirs sued for possession of these works, but their claim was rejected by the State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science.