Police have recovered an 18th-century painting stolen by Nazis from a Dutch Jewish art collector in Mar del Plata, just over a week after it appeared in an online property ad and then suddenly vanished.
Portrait of a Lady, by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi (also known as Fra Galgario, 1655-1743) was missing for eight decades before being photographed hanging in a home of the daughter of a senior SS officer, who fled to Argentina after World War II.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that the woman's lawyer returned the work after a major hunt for it that made headlines worldwide.
Showing off the piece, art expert Ariel Bassano told reporters it was "in good condition for its age, as it dates from 1710."
He was quoted by Mar del Plata-based newspaper La Capital as valuing it at "around US$50,000."
The painting was recognised last week by Dutch newspaper AD in online photographs of a house for sale in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, or more specifically, the Parque Luro neighbourhood.
It was hanging above a green sofa in the living room of Patricia Kadgien, daughter of SS financial guru Friedrich Kadgien, one of several high-ranking Nazis to escape to Argentina after the war.
The painting was among over 1,000 artworks stolen from Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker's collection after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.
Its discovery generated a flurry of excitement on both sides of the Atlantic.
But no sooner had it been identified than it disappeared again.
When police went to raid the premises after being tipped off about the property, they found no trace of the artwork.
Kadgien and her partner were placed under house arrest on Tuesday after several failed police searches for the portrait.
La Plata-based newspaper El Día reported Tuesday that the artwork had been handed over, saying the family “decided to make the painting available to the civil court."
According to La Nación, the couple admitted in a court filing that they owned the artwork and said they believed any lawsuit over its ownership would fall under the statute of limitations.
Their lawyer, Carlos Murias, said that prosecutors were seeking to charge his clients with "concealing smuggling."
If framed within the context of the genocide of Jews during World War II, the crime would not be bound by the statute of limitations.
The prosecutor's office said investigators carrying out the search had seized two other artworks from the home of another Kadgien daughter that appeared to be from the 1800s.
"The works will be analysed to determine if they are linked to paintings stolen during World War II," it added.
Knock on the door
The investigation arose from a visit to Kadgien's home by Dutch journalist Peter Schouten, who was investigating her father's past.
AD – also known as Algemeen Dagblad – had tried unsuccessfully to speak to Kadgien's daughters for years.
"We wanted to talk about her father because there were a lot of news stories about him in the Netherlands about 10 years ago," Schouten told Argentina's Radio Rivadavia in an interview.
Schouten said he knocked on the door of the house and got no response but noticed a for-sale sign.
After searching online property ads, he spotted the painting in a photo of the house's interior.
"I freaked out, of course," Shouten recalled. "I sent all the information to Holland, where they worked with the official institutions and confirmed that yes, it was that painting, that there was no chance it was a replica," he added.
He said he immediately contacted Kadgien to get her version of events but received no response and that shortly afterwards, the for-sale listing was removed from the property site.
Goudstikker, a leading dealer of Italian and Dutch 16th- and 17th-century masters during the wars, fled the Netherlands days after the Nazi invasion.
He left behind an extensive art collection, which was divided up by top German officials, led by Gestapo founder Hermann Goering.
After the war, the Dutch state retrieved some 300 works, most of which were returned to Goudstikker's heirs.
In 2011, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles returned a 17th-century Dutch painting from Goudstikker's collection.
Many other works remain scattered around the globe.
The case has also revived questions about Argentina’s post-war role as a safe haven for Nazi fugitives.
Friedrich Kadgien, who died in Mar del Plata in 1978, was part of the extensive network that smuggled stolen assets and individuals across Europe and into South America.
The search for the Ghislandi masterwork has prompted calls for a deeper probe into other works that may remain hidden in private collections.
– TIMES/AFP
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