The painting, known as A Family Portrait, or The Family of Cornelis de Vos is by Flemish Baroque artist Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who was a leading court painter to the English Royal family before his death in 1641, depicts the likeness of fellow painter Cornelis de Vos along with his wife Suzanna Cock, and children Magdalena and Jan-Baptist.
The 44 inch painting was purchased by Sir Francis Cook in 1868, and was in his family until the 1930s when Dutch art dealer Nathan Katz purchased ownership of the painting, along with roughly 40 others.
However, according to multinational fine arts company Sotheby's, a forced sale to powerful Nazi military commander Herman Goering saw it fall into the hands of the Third Reich until the end of World War Two. The painting, explained Penta, was returned to the Katz family in 1948 after being retrieved by the Monuments Men, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators and historians, who risked their lives to recover Nazi-looted art.
It was later sold to art patron Emil Georg Buhrle who has put it up for auction at Sotheby's London, where it is expected to fetch anywhere between $1.38 million and $2.07 million, according to the Sotheby's website.