A $10 million collection of art and other valuables recently donated to the University of Pretoria, South Africa by Jacob A. Van Tilberg, a Dutch national, may be loot taken by the Nazis from Jewish families during World War II. This possibility was brought to light today by the Rotterdam daily, Algemeen Dagblad, which investigated Van Tilberg’s activities in cooperation with the Dutch correspondents of The Times of London, the South African publication, “The Start,” and a local newspaper in Dordrecht, Holland.
Former members of the Dutch resistance in Dordrecht have brought charges against Van Tilberg who lived in that town south of Rotterdam before and during World War II and served as a municipal councilman and Alderman. He settled in South Africa in the 1950s.
The paper disclosed that Van Tilberg, a man of modest means, was found in possession of a vast art collection after the war. Interviewed in Pretoria, he said that he had received many art objects for safe-keeping during the German occupation of Holland which he returned later to surviving Jews who claimed them. The collection he presented to Pretoria University reportedly consists of over 7000 paintings, carpets and silver and gold objects.
The newspaper said Van Tilberg declared his collection to be ordinary furniture when he came to South Africa. An ensuing law suit lasting seven years was decided in his favor.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
