Kurt Walter Bachstitz

[3] But Bachstitz requested for himself the Austrian village Raipoltenbach as his place of birth when he claimed at the U.S. Department of Labor for an extension of his temporary stay in 1931.

On the outbreak of the First World War he was called up for military service and served between 1914 and 1918 as an officer, lastly in the rank of a troop captain.

According to the documents in the file concerning his successful application to become a Dutchman after the war[11] the couple provided undercover protection for Jews trying to escape the authorities.

In 1942 Bachstitz was summoned by the occupation authority (the "Wirtschaftsamt") as he had failed to register the gallery as "non-Aryan property".

Proceedings were commenced against him and he was arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in July 1943 and imprisoned in the Scheveningen prison in The Hague.

[12] In 1944 Bachstitz managed to obtain permission to leave the Netherlands and he emigrated to Switzerland, again with the help of Andreas Hofer.

[1][13] As a bribe for the exit visa Bachstitz had to hand over art to Hermann Göring, namely a painting with the Samson and Delilah motive by Jan Steen,[14] as well two antique necklaces.

[18] In 2009 the Dutch government restituted the painting "Roman Capriccio" by Pietro Capelli from the stock of the SNK to Bachstitz' grandchildren.

Regarding most of these works, the Committee ruled that these sales had not been made under duress because Bachstitz had been left "undisturbed" in 1940 and 1941.

[21] In July 2013 the Prussian Heritage Foundation restituted a Tyrolean gothic wall-mounted writing slate (c. 1500) and a large 16th-century Italian bronze mortar.