Twist in case of Nazi-looted $288,000 painting found in Argentina home of fugitive official’s daughter

An Argentine resident agreed to surrender an 18th-century painting looted by Nazis after it surfaced inside an online property listing, court records show.

Patricia Kadgien lives in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where her house was listed for sale online, according to records.

Her husband was identified in court documents as Juan Carlos Cortegoso, records show.

An Argentine federal judge signed off on returning the artwork to the family of its original owner, according to the report.

The painting is “Portrait of a Lady,” an 18th-century canvas by Italian baroque painter Giacomo Ceruti, records state.

Ceruti was also known by the moniker Il Pitocchetto, according to the report.

The canvas is valued at $288,000, according to records.

The work had long been misattributed to fellow Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, records show. A court-ordered examination by Argentina’s National Academy of Fine Arts determined Ceruti was the true creator.

The judge ordered the portrait returned to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker, according to records.

Goudstikker was a Dutch Jewish art dealer, the report states.

He built one of Europe’s great private art collections, totaling more than 1,100 pieces, records show. German troops rolled into the Netherlands in 1940 and forced him to abandon the collection.

The dealer assisted fellow Jews in escaping mainland Europe once Nazi forces took control of the country, according to the report.

Goudstikker died during the escape, records state.

His gallery was systematically stripped by Nazi officials following his death, according to the report.

Roughly 800 works from the collection were seized by Hermann Goering, the Telegraph reported.

Goering served as the Luftwaffe commander and was one of the most influential figures in the Third Reich, according to the report.

Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien was among the figures involved in the stripping of the gallery, records state.

The elder Kadgien served as a financial fixer for the regime, according to the report.

He later slipped away to South America after the war, records show.

Kadgien eventually settled in Mar del Plata, a resort town on the Atlantic coast, according to the report.

Decades later, a real estate agency listed the daughter’s home for sale online, records show.

An image of the living room was buried among the interior photographs on the website, records show. The picture captured a green couch with the missing artwork hanging directly above it.

The painting had been listed on international missing art registries for 80 years, according to the report.

A Dutch journalist chasing leads on the Goudstikker collection spotted the resemblance in the listing, records state.

The journalist connected with attorney Yael Weitz at the New York firm Freedman Normand Friedland, according to the report.

Weitz brought the case to Argentine authorities, records show.

Police soon raided the Mar del Plata property, records state.

Officers discovered that the painting had already been removed from the residence, police said. The photograph had also been scrubbed from the online real estate listing.

Investigators did not leave the property empty-handed, police said. Officers seized phones along with a stash of 1940s-era documents that helped build the case.

Unregistered guns were also discovered and seized during the search, according to police.

Kadgien and her husband were charged with concealment, court records show. The defendants ultimately cut a deal with authorities to resolve the case.

The agreement required the couple to surrender all claims to the painting, records state. They also agreed to donate roughly $3,200 to a Mar del Plata children’s hospital.

Judicial authorities agreed to suspend the criminal case against the suspects in exchange for those terms, court documents show.

Juan Ignacio Pascual, an attorney representing the Goudstikker heirs, called the outcome a watershed moment for the country, the report states.

“As far as we know, this is the first time that the Argentine justice system has recovered and restituted a painting looted by the Nazis during the Second World War,” Pascual told the Art Newspaper.

More than 200 works from the collection were returned to the family by the Dutch government back in 2006, records show. Hundreds of other pieces remain scattered around the globe with their locations unknown.

Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir, said the ruling carried weight far beyond the canvas itself, according to the report.

“I am thrilled with the court’s decision to restitute this important artwork,” von Saher told the New York Times.

The Argentine federal judge signed off on returning the recovered masterpiece to Goudstikker’s heirs, court records show.