How an 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis was recovered 80 years later in Argentina
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How an 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis was recovered 80 years later in Argentina
Patricia Kadgien, 59, and Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 61, were charged with aggravated concealment. They are accused of hiding Portrait of a Lady, by the late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi. The painting belonged to Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled Amsterdam in mid-May 1940 but died after falling through an open hatch into the SS. The couple have denied the charges and say they were trying to establish ownership and not at all to hide the artwork. They have been banned from leaving their home for more than 24 hours without approval. A Dutch reporter based in Buenos Aires, Peter Schouten, went knocking on the door of the villa – and spotted a “for sale” sign. The story made headlines around the world as the story unfolded of the unlikely recovery of an 18th-century portrait missing for 80 years. The Dutch news outlet AD had, for several years, been quietly investigating the fate of old master paintings looted by the Nazis.
Patricia Kadgien, 59, was born in Buenos Aires, five hours to the north. Her social media described her as a yoga teacher and practitioner of biodecoding, an obscure alternative therapy that claims to cure illness by resolving past traumas.
Her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 61, built and raced go-karts. Like many in this neighbourhood, the couple were comfortably off, and discreet. “Patri was an excellent person”, one neighbour said. “Nice, well educated,” said another.
Then, last month, they put their house up for sale. A photographer from a local estate agent, Robles Casas y Campos, came round to shoot the spacious, elegantly furnished interiors. The pictures went up. And their quiet existence came crashing down.
The fifth photograph on the agency’s listing showed a general view of the villa’s living room. Hanging on the wall, above a buttoned sofa in plush green velvet and next to a polished antique commode, was a highly distinctive oil painting of a woman.
View image in fullscreen The painting by Italian artist Ghislandi in the living room in Mar del Plata. Photograph: Robles Casas & Campos
More than 11,000km away, the Dutch news outlet AD had, for several years, been quietly investigating the fate of old master paintings looted by the Nazis and still listed by the Dutch culture ministry as “unreturned” after the second world war.
Journalists had made several attempts to speak to Patricia Kadgien, the owner of the property, and to her elder sister, Alicia, the daughters of a high-ranking Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, who was known to have settled in Argentina after the war.
Their calls and messages had consistently gone unanswered, or been rebuffed. But then a Dutch reporter based in Buenos Aires, Peter Schouten, went knocking on the door of the villa – and spotted a “for sale” sign.
What followed, after Schouten and his colleagues in Rotterdam clicked on the link to the property and instantly recognised the work, made headlines around the world as the story unfolded of the unlikely recovery of an 18th-century portrait missing for 80 years.
“It’s very surreal – a little absurd, too,” Schouten said after a packed court hearing during which Kadgien and Cortegoso were charged with aggravated concealment for allegedly hiding Portrait of a Lady, by the late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi.
The federal prosecutor, Carlos Martínez, told the court that the concealment charge “must be understood as linked to the crime of genocide … This is theft in the context of genocide. It is connected to the most serious crimes known to humanity.”
A judge imposed a 180-day travel ban on the couple and barred them from leaving their home for more than 24 hours without approval as Martínez said the plundering of cultural assets “was part of a systematic plan … to enrich the Nazi regime and its members”.
View image in fullscreen Patricia Kadgien attends a hearing on charges of concealment and obstruction of justice Photograph: Jose Scalzo/Reuters
After the media reports of the work’s likely location, and before a police search, the couple had tried to obstruct the investigation, the prosecutor argued, by taking down the online property listing and for sale sign and replacing the portrait with a tapestry.
Despite knowing they were under investigation, it was alleged that the defendants had also attempted a civil action claiming the painting was rightfully theirs, turning it over only after they were placed under house arrest and facing further police raids.
Through their lawyer, Kadgien and Cortegoso have denied concealment, saying they had always been willing to hand over the painting, and obstruction, arguing that their civil action was aimed at establishing ownership and not at hiding the artwork.
During a series of raids this week on properties owned by members of the Kadgien family, police seized engravings, prints, drawings and two 19th-century paintings, officials have said, with further charges likely if those works, too, prove to have been looted.
Portrait of a Lady belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a Jewish-Dutch art dealer who fled Amsterdam in mid-May 1940 to escape the Nazis, but died after falling through an open hatch into the hold of the SS Bodegraven, the ship carrying him to the UK.
Goudstikker carried with him a notebook detailing his collection of more than 1,100 artworks, including pieces by Rubens, Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt and Van Gogh, all of which were snapped up for a fraction of their value by Nazi officials.
Some were later recovered and displayed as part of the Dutch national collection in the Rijkmuseum, before 202 works were restored to the dealer’s sole heir, his daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, in 2006. Portrait of a Lady was not among them.
Chief among the buyers in a forced sale typical of second world war art thefts was Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, one of whose senior aides, in the early years of the war, was a 33-year-old official called Friedrich Gustav Kadgien.
Born in 1907, Kadgien joined the Nazi party in 1932 and the SS in 1935. By 1938, he was a special representative working for Göring on the four-year economic plan drawn up by Adolf Hitler to rearm Germany and prepare it for self-sufficiency by 1940.
A key player in the Third Reich’s foreign currency dealings, Kadgien was also, according to a 1996 Swiss report, “heavily involved in criminal methods for the acquisition of cash, securities and diamonds stolen from Jewish victims”.
Kadgien “confiscated a large amount of property from Jewish merchants, including jewellery and diamonds in Amsterdam, and oversaw the sale of expropriated shares and securities through banks and front companies in Switzerland”, Martínez said.
He fled to Zurich early in 1945, then to nearby Baden, where in 1948 he set up a successful finance and trading firm, Imhauka. With pressure growing after questioning by Swiss and US investigators, Kadgien left for South America in 1949.
Thousands of Nazis fled to the continent after the war, settling in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. With a few notable high-profile exceptions, most lived out their lives undisturbed, sometimes without even changing names.
Kadgien resurfaced in Rio de Janeiro in 1951, settling in the Santa Teresa district and establishing a Brazilian branch of Imhauka with Ludwig Haupt, a former colleague from the four-year-plan, and Anna Imfeld, the wife of his Swiss associate.
By whatever means it was acquired, his wealth was sufficient for him to invest in an 85,000-hectare ranch with 20,000 cattle. A Buenos Aires branch of Imhauka followed in 1951, and Kadgien – now Federico Gustavo – won Argentinian citizenship soon after.
Imhauka secured valuable contracts with Juan Perón’s government, including acting as an intermediary for major German engineering firms such as Siemens, while a second company, Dryamin, launched in 1973, specialised in food and drugs.
In the Argentinian capital, Kadgien married Hildegard Strauss, with whom he had Patricia and Alicia. He died, without being held accountable for his wartime and subsequent actions, in 1978 or 1979, and is reportedly buried in the German cemetery.
Alicia became a model and is locally well known, unlike Patricia, whose unwanted fame is more recent. “If you hadn’t told me I would never have known,” a neighbour said. Another said she was being “held responsible for her father’s mistakes”.
Even those sympathetic to her, however, admit it was strange that she did not hand over the painting immediately.
The fate of Portrait of a Lady, which will be registered with Argentina’s supreme court, is now uncertain.
Prosecutors have requested it be held, but not displayed, at the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires while its ultimate ownership is determined. This week von Saher, Goudstikker’s heir, lodged a legal claim to the work with the FBI in New York.
The Guardian
Painting was spotted online by Dutch journalists when the daughter of a former Nazi official put her house up for sale in Mar del Plata.
How an 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis was recovered 80 years later in Argentina
Painting was spotted online by Dutch journalists when the daughter of a former Nazi official put her house up for sale in Mar del Plata
A portrait stolen by Nazis has been recovered in Argentina – Deseret News
Giuseppe Ghislandi’s 18th-century painting “Portrait of a Lady” was rediscovered in an online real estate listing. The painting was initially looted during World War II by Hitler’s deputy Hermann Göring. After the fall of the Third Reich, fugitive Nazis fled to Argentina, bringing with them plundered Jewish property, including paintings, sculptures, and furnishings. It was discovered in the home of Patricia Kadgien, whose late father had been a top adviser to Adolf Hitler’s deputy. The couple insists that they are the rightful owners of the artwork, which they had inherited from their father-in-law, Jacques Goudstikker, who died in 1940 while fleeing the Nazis. It had not been seen publicly since the 1940s and was valued at around $50,000 at the time of its rediscovery last month, according to an art expert involved in the case, per BBC.
KEY POINTS Giuseppe Ghislandi’s “Portrait of a Lady” was rediscovered in an online real estate listing.
The painting was initially looted during World War II by Hitler’s deputy Hermann Göring.
The initial discovery of the artwork was made by Dutch journalists.
A painting that had not been seen for 80 years after being looted by the Nazis during World War II has been discovered and turned over to Argentine authorities.
On Wednesday, an Argentine federal court announced that the long-lost “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi had been recovered by authorities after it appeared in an online real estate listing last month, per CBS News.
The painting was first discovered when Patricia Kadgien, whose late father Friedrich Kadgien had been a top adviser to Adolf Hitler’s deputy Hermann Göring, included a photo of the artwork in an online real estate listing, per BBC. Göring had plundered thousands of works across Europe during the war.
During a press conference to display the portrait, federal prosecutor Daniel Adler said, “We’re doing this simply so that the community to whom we partly owe the discovery of the work … can see these images.”
“It was people from the community, specifically journalists, who prompted the investigation,” Adler added, per CBS News.
Before its presentation on Wednesday in the coastal Argentine city of Mar del Plata, it had not been seen publicly since World War II.
History of the painting
The painting is a portrait of Countess Colleoni, her hair ink-black and dress embroidered with pastel flowers.
Painted by Ghislandi, it was a part of the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch Jewish art dealer who had a collection of over 1,100 works of art, per NBC News. The art dealer died in 1940 while fleeing the Nazis.
Ariel Bassano, an art expert involved in the case, said the painting is “in good condition given its age,” per BBC. He dated the portrait to 1710 and valued it at around $50,000.
How it was discovered
The discovery of the painting was made by Dutch journalists who were investigating Kadgien’s past in Argentina, where the high-ranking Nazi official fled after the Third Reich collapsed, per CBS News.
News of the discovery delighted historians around the world as well as the heirs of Goudstikker. His family have sought to recover his paintings that have been missing since the forced sale of Goudstikker’s extensive collection to Göring.
After the painting was spotted online, a story was published in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad last Monday. Hours later the real estate listing was taken down. According to CBS News, police raided the Mar del Plata home of Patricia Kadgien, but the painting was not there.
Patricia Kadgien and her husband were placed under house arrest pending a hearing on charges of concealment and obstruction of justice. The pair insists that they are the rightful owners of the artwork, which they had inherited, per BBC.
The couple’s lawyer handed the painting over to authorities on Wednesday, but Adler did not share where the portrait will go next.
Earlier this week, authorities raided four other properties belonging to the Kadgien family. They seized paintings and engravings that are suspected of having been stolen during the 1940s. After the fall of the Third Reich, fugitive Nazis fled to Argentina, bringing with them plundered Jewish property, including gold, paintings, sculptures and furnishings, per NBC News.
“My search for the artwork of my father-in-law, Jacques Goudstikker, began in the late 1990s and I have not given up to this day,” said Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, per BBC. “It is my family’s goal to recover every artwork stolen from the Goudstikker collection and to restore Jacques’ legacy.”
Daughter of Nazi officer who looted painting charged with cover-up in Argentina
Patricia Kadgien, whose father was a prominent Nazi officer, faces charges of cover-up. She surrendered Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady to the Argentine judiciary, eight decades after its confiscation. The future of the artwork remains uncertain, pending a court decision. Lawyers for the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, the Dutch-Jewish art collector whose world-famous inventory was confiscated by the Nazis, have lodged a legal claim to reclaim the piece. He died in a shipwreck in 1940 while fleeing the Netherlands as German troops advanced. He sold his collection, which included Rembrandts and Vermeers, under duress and far below the market price. At least 1,100 stolen works from his gallery remain missing. The court has requested that the painting be displayed at the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires ahead of any further transfer abroad. The couple were released from house arrest but barred from travelling abroad and required to notify the court whenever they leave their registered address.
This development comes a day after she surrendered Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady to the Argentine judiciary, eight decades after its confiscation. The federal prosecutor overseeing the case announced the charges.
The future of the artwork remains uncertain, pending a court decision. Lawyers for the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, the Dutch-Jewish art collector whose world-famous inventory was confiscated by the Nazis, have lodged a legal claim to reclaim the piece.
Goudstikker died in a shipwreck in 1940 while fleeing the Netherlands as German troops advanced. He sold his collection, which included Rembrandts and Vermeers, under duress and far below the market price. At least 1,100 stolen works from his gallery remain missing.
The Argentine court has requested that the painting be displayed at the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires ahead of any further transfer abroad. The museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patricia Kadgien, right, one of the daughters of fugitive Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, left, attend a court hearing in the case of the theft of the 18th-century Italian ‘Portrait of a Lady’, which was taken from a Jewish collector during the Second World War, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Thursday, 4 September 2025 (AP)
Patricia Kadgien, 59, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 62, have been under house arrest on suspicion of concealing the painting since police raided their home on Monday for the second time in as many weeks without finding Portrait of a Lady.
Kadgien, with disheveled, dirty-blond hair and sunglasses on her head, wore a look that mixed concern and puzzlement as she listened to prosecutor Carlos Martínez in a jam-packed courtroom. Martínez said that Kadgien’s and her husband’s efforts to hide the painting over several days following its sudden appearance in a real estate listing amounted to obstruction of justice.
Cortegoso gazed straight ahead, his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face.
After the hearing, the couple was released from house arrest but barred from travelling abroad and required to notify the court whenever they leave their registered address.
Photos of the painting hanging in Kadgien’s living room in Mar del Plata surfaced last month for the first time in eight decades in an online real estate advertisement.
Dutch journalists investigating Kadgien’s past in Argentina – where he took refuge after the collapse of the Third Reich – spotted Portrait of a Lady hanging above a green velvet couch in the living room during a 3D tour of the house for sale.
After recognising it as the same portrait listed as missing in international archives of Nazi-looted art, the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad published an exposé on 25 August, which grabbed headlines around the world.
Alerted by the international police agency Interpol, Argentine authorities raided the house and other properties belonging to Patricia Kadgien and her sister Alicia, seizing a rifle, a .32-caliber revolver and several paintings from the 19th century that they suspect may have been similarly stolen during the Second World War.
But police couldn’t find Portrait of a Lady. They found scuff marks and a pastoral tapestry on Patricia Kadgien’s living room wall where the portrait had been photographed.
The real estate ad, first posted in February, was swiftly taken down. Prosecutors on Thursday said that security footage showed people removing the “for sale” sign from Kadgien’s front yard as media scrutiny intensified last week.
In presenting the charges, Martínez told the court that the couple was “aware that the artwork was being sought by the criminal justice system and international authorities”, but went to great lengths to hide it.
“It was only after several police raids that they turned it in,” he said.
With the defendants under house arrest on Monday, their lawyer, Carlos Murias, filed a petition with a civil court in Mar del Plata asking that Kadgien be allowed to auction the painting.
The court rejected the request, arguing that it lacked jurisdiction given the painting’s provenance.
On Thursday, Martínez told reporters that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had informed his office that Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s heir, had lodged a legal claim to Portrait of a Lady at the FBI’s New York office. The bureau declined to comment.
Old master painting looted by Nazis recovered a week after being spotted in Argentinian property listing
Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by 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 Kad gien has been under house arrest with her husband since Tuesday. They face a hearing on Thursday on charges of concealment and obstruction of justice. The painting was last seen in 1946 and belonging to the Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The portrait was among more than 1,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis.
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.
View image in fullscreen A member of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) stands outside a house that was raided in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in the search for the painting. Photograph: Mara Sosti/AFP/Getty Images
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.