Authorities in Argentina have recovered an 18th-century painting stolen more than 80 years ago by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a week after it was spotted by chance in a real estate listing.
The painting, the long-lost Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi, was looted in the second world war. It was handed over on Wednesday to the Argentinian judiciary by the daughter of the late Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien, Patricia Kadgien, who has been under house arrest with her husband since Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege the couple tried to conceal the stolen artwork. They face a hearing on Thursday on charges of concealment and obstruction of justice. The Guardian contacted her legal representatives, who declined to comment.
The Dutch newspaper AD traced the painting after a years-long investigation that took a breakthrough turn last week when one of its reporters found Kadgien’s house in an online property listing in the seaside city of Mar del Plata.
A photo in the listing showed the missing artwork – last seen in 1946 and belonging to the Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker – hanging above a sofa in the couple’s living room. AD published its findings on 25 August.
The next day, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez ordered a raid on the property, but the painting was no longer there. Police seized two unlicensed firearms and two mobile phones.
Four additional raids on Monday uncovered two other paintings that experts believe could date back to the 19th century, along with several drawings and engravings. The judiciary is analysing the works to determine whether they, too, were looted during the second world war.
A federal court in Mar del Plata placed Kadgien and her husband under 72-hour house arrest on Tuesday.
After the fall of the Third Reich at the end of the second world war, several high-ranking Nazi officials fled to South America.
Friedrich Kadgien was among them. He fled the Netherlands in 1946, first to Switzerland, then Brazil, and finally to Argentina, where he had two daughters. The painting is believed to have accompanied him and to have remained in his family’s possession after he died in Buenos Aires in 1978.
The portrait was among more than 1,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis from Goudstikker, who died in 1940 after falling in the hold of the ship carrying him to safety.
Goudstikker’s heirs plan to reclaim the painting, AD reported.
