Nazi-looted painting found hanging in Argentine home

A painting stolen by Nazi forces during World War II has been identified hanging on the wall of an Argentine home after appearing in a real estate listing, marking an extraordinary discovery 80 years after its theft. The artwork, “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch-Jewish art dealer whose vast collection was looted during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940.nypost

The remarkable find occurred when investigative journalists from the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad spotted the painting above a sofa in photographs posted by Argentine real estate agency Robles Casas & Campos. The property belonged to the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a former financial adviser to Hermann Göring who fled to Argentina after the war.bbc

Years-Long Investigation Leads to Breakthrough

The discovery represents the culmination of nearly a decade-long investigation by Dutch journalists Cyril Rosman, Paul Post, and Peter Schouten, who had been tracing Kadgien’s postwar activities in South America. After years of unsuccessful attempts to contact Kadgien’s daughters about their father’s wartime activities and potential art holdings, the breakthrough came when one daughter listed the family property for sale.forbes

“I was scrolling through the listing, looking for photos of the father or maybe some old documents,” journalist Cyril Rosman told ABC News. “I didn’t expect to find one of the paintings we’d been searching for just sitting there in the living room. It was surreal”.yahoo

The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands confirmed that experts are “almost certain” the painting is authentic, based on matching dimensions and composition with wartime records. However, final verification would require physical examination of the artwork’s back for identifying marks or labels.bbc

The Goudstikker Collection’s Tragic History

Jacques Goudstikker was among Europe’s most important art dealers before the war, operating from his Amsterdam gallery with a collection of more than 1,400 works. When Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Goudstikker fled with his family but tragically died in an accident while crossing the English Channel on a cargo ship.thecjm

Within weeks of his death, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring seized approximately 800 pieces from Goudstikker’s collection in what is considered one of the largest single acts of Nazi art plunder. The entire collection was acquired through forced sales orchestrated by Göring’s associate Alois Miedl at a fraction of its value.stairgalleries

Following the war, about 200 works were recovered by Allied forces and eventually returned to Goudstikker’s heirs in 2006 through the Dutch government. However, more than 800 pieces remain missing, including the recently discovered portrait.thejewishmuseum

Legal Action and Broader Implications

Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s 81-year-old daughter-in-law and sole surviving heir, has been actively pursuing the recovery of looted artworks since the 1990s. Through her American legal team, von Saher is preparing legal action to recover the newly identified painting.forbes

“My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection and restore his legacy,” von Saher stated.yahoo

Art detective Arthur Brand, known as “the Indiana Jones of the art world,” called the discovery remarkable. “A painting stolen in WWII, thought lost for decades, suddenly pops up on a real estate website in Argentina, hanging above a sofa,” Brand said. “You can’t write a better script”.abcnews

Researchers have also identified a second looted artwork—a floral still life by 17th-century Dutch artist Abraham Mignon—on social media accounts linked to Kadgien’s family. The discovery highlights the ongoing challenge of locating the estimated thousands of Nazi-looted artworks that remain in private hands worldwide.bbc