A 17th-century painting stolen by the Nazis in 1940 from a Jewish art collector in Belgium is set to be returned to the collector’s descendants, the British government announced on Saturday,

March 29.

The artwork, Aeneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy by English painter Henry Gibbs (1654), was left behind when Samuel Hartveld and his wife fled Nazi persecution in Antwerp. The painting had been part of Hartveld’s collection before it was looted by the Nazis during their occupation.

After spending more than 30 years in London’s Tate Britain gallery, the painting will now be returned to Hartveld’s heirs. The decision follows a recommendation by the UK’s Spoliation Advisory Panel, which investigates claims related to cultural property lost during the Nazi era.

“The property, library, and paintings in Hartveld’s gallery were looted as an act of racial persecution,” the panel said. It added that the case for returning the artwork was both legally and morally “obvious.”

The Tate acquired the painting in 1994, but a review into its provenance began in May of last year. Under a 2009 UK law, museums can return Nazi-looted art if approved by the arts minister.

However, broader repatriation of cultural artifacts from British museums remains restricted by other laws, despite ongoing international demands for the return of colonial-era objects. Photo by Art UK, Wikimedia commons.