BUENOS AIRES, Sept 5 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentina’s Federal Police took delivery of the painting “Portrait of a Lady” by Giuseppe Ghislandi, which had been stolen by the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II. The work of art, dating back to 1710, was voluntarily handed over by the family in possession of it for decades.
The investigation began after a Dutch newspaper discovered the painting in an online real estate advertisement for a house in Mar del Plata. The property belonged to the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a high-ranking SS officer and financial expert who fled to South America after the conflict.
After an initial search of the home failed to locate the painting, authorities placed the daughter and her husband under house arrest for obstructing the investigation. The family, now cornered, decided to hand over the painting to a federal prosecutor. The painting, which is in good condition, is valued at around US$50,000.
It had originally belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Jewish-Dutch art dealer. His heirs have announced that they will formally seek its return.
The Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad spotted the painting in a real estate advertisement, hanging above a green sofa in a living room.
At another family property, two 19th-century paintings and several drawings and engravings were seized, which will be analyzed to determine whether they were also stolen during the war.
Friedrich Kadgien was a member of the SS and Hermann Göring’s right-hand man. He participated in the Nazi regime’s Four-Year Plans, which financed the German war industry, and is believed to have been one of the Third Reich’s most important financial experts, nicknamed “the wizard of finance.” After the war, he fled to Switzerland and then settled in Brazil and Argentina, where he lived until his death in 1978 without facing charges for his past.
Patricia Kadgien and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, are to be arraigned on Thursday.
