It was looted by the Nazis and sequestered for many decades in the family home of a notorious Dutch SS general.

Now Portrait of a Young Girl, by the Dutch artist Toon Kelder, could soon be returned to its rightful Jewish owners after the painting’s murky secrets were uncovered by an art detective.

Arthur Brand, a Dutch private investigator, tracked down the painting to the home of the family of Hendrik Seyffardt, a Dutch general who led a Waffen SS collaborator unit.

Brand said he received a tip-off about its location from a member of the Seyffardt family, who said he wanted to disclose a disturbing secret about a painting in the home.

Brand told The Telegraph: “This was a man who discovered that his family had changed its name after World War II, and that he was a descendant of a famous Nazi general. He almost fainted when he found out.

“He then spoke to the granddaughter of that general, who was a relative of his as well, and she showed him a painting and said, ‘this is a family secret: it was looted from the Jews and we can never sell it’.”

The man, who has not been identified, was wracked with guilt about the presence of a Nazi-looted painting being held by his family, and decided to approach Brand via a middleman.

Brand was able to prove that the painting was looted when he found a label on the back that identified it as being from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a Jewish art dealer.

Goudstikker left behind his collection of more than 1000 works of art after he died on a ship in 1940 while fleeing the Nazis.

The collection was then seized by Hermann Göring when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands.

The painting was then sold at auction, at which point it passed into the hands of General Seyffardt, who left it to his relatives as an heirloom.

The Seyffardt family has issued a statement to Dutch media, insisting that they were unaware of the full history of the painting but now recognised Goudstikker’s heirs were seeking its return.

It was not immediately clear if the family planned to give back the painting, though it was now set to face intense public pressure to do so.

Brand is known as the “Indiana Jones of the art world”, owing to his talent for tracking down lost paintings and reuniting them with the descendants of their owners.

He has previously rediscovered works by Picasso and Van Gogh, as well as a ring belonging to Oscar Wilde.

- AFP