A 17th-century painting stolen from a Jewish art collector during the Holocaust is finally making its way back to his family after more than eight decades.

“Aeneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy” by Henry Gibbs ironically depicts a family fleeing a burning city. It originally hung in Samuel Hartveld’s Antwerp home until May 1940, when he and his wife fled Belgium as Nazi forces advanced. Though Hartveld survived the Holocaust, his stolen Gibbs painting changed hands multiple times, eventually landing at Tate Britain in 1994 through a Brussels gallery purchase.

The museum had no knowledge of the artwork’s dark past. Tate Britain director Maria Balshaw welcomed the UK’s Spoliation Advisory Panel’s decision to return the painting to Hartveld’s heirs.

“It is a profound privilege to help reunite this work with its rightful heirs. Although the artwork’s provenance was extensively investigated when it was acquired, crucial facts concerning previous ownership were not known,” said Tate Britain director Maria Balshaw on Saturday.

Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant praised the panel’s efforts in restoring justice.

“The case of Samuel Hartveld is the perfect example of the Spoliation Advisory Panel doing the work it was designed to do – helping to reunite families with their most treasured possessions that were looted by the Nazis,” he said. “The decision to return the painting to the heirs of Samuel Hartveld and his wife is absolutely the right decision, which I welcome wholeheartedly.”

Since its establishment in 2000, the Spoliation Advisory Panel has handled 23 claims, with 14 masterpieces stolen by the Nazis since returned to their rightful heirs.