The legal heirs of an art historian who donated 25 major works to the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague have demanded them back because most are not on display.

Dutch media reported on Friday that the heirs of Abraham Bredius are taking the museum to court, saying the terms of the gift have been breached.

The former director of the Mauritshuis, who died in 1946, gave a bequest including four works by Rembrandt and others by Jan Steen, Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruysdael. Only the Rembrandts and one Van Ruysdael are on display.

However the lawyer for the descendents of his pupil, Joseph Kronig – his legal heirs – said they are taking the museum to court today because 20 of the works are apparently in storage instead of on display.

Gert Jan van den Bergh, their lawyer, told NOS broadcaster. “He had previously donated 34 works to the Rijksmuseum, without conditions, only to find as he later wrote that they ‘ended up hanging in a dark corner’. He thought that this should not happen again.”

The bequest to the Mauritshuis was made with the strict condition that all 25 works should always be on display, but this is not the case. “The descendents of Kronig say: either you accept the terms of a gift, with the conditions attached, or you don’t accept the gift,” said van den Bergh. “But what has happened is that they have accepted the bequest but not the conditions. And so, at some point, you have to ask a judge to intervene.”

A spokesman for the Mauritshuis told Dutch News it was unable to comment while the case was still being researched.