Argentine court clears return of Nazi-looted portrait to Jewish dealer’s
heir
[September 05, 2026]
By SERGIO FARELLA and ALMUDENA CALATRAVA
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A long-lost Italian portrait looted from
a prominent Jewish art dealer during World War II was set to be returned
to his heir after an Argentine court on Friday approved a deal under
which the daughter of a fugitive Nazi official agreed to give up her
claim rather than face trial.
The agreement paves the way for the long-sought return of “ Portrait of
a Lady ” to Marei von Saher, the sole surviving heir of Dutch-Jewish art
dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose celebrated collection was sold under
duress to Nazi officials after Adolf Hitler’s Germany invaded the
Netherlands in 1940.
Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of the late high-ranking Nazi official
Friedrich Kadgien, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, were charged
with aggravated cover-up last year after authorities said they hid the
18th-century painting despite knowing it was being sought by Argentine
and international investigators.
Under the agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated
Press, the couple agreed to give up any claim to the work and consent to
its return to von Saher in exchange for avoiding a criminal trial and
spending two years under court supervision. During that time, they must
make payments to a hospital in Argentina's coastal city of Mar del
Plata, where they live, and keep authorities informed of their
whereabouts.
The deal ends a generations-long search for the missing portrait and a
yearlong legal saga that began in August 2025. Dutch reporters
investigating Friedrich Kadgien, a fugitive Nazi financial official who
fled to Argentina after World War II, spotted “Portrait of a Lady”
hanging above a green velvet couch in an online real estate listing for
his daughter’s rustic home in Mar del Plata.
The listing disappeared within hours of the Rotterdam-based newspaper
Algemeen Dagblad publishing its findings. Police raided the home several
times but failed to find the painting. More than a week later, Kadgien’s
lawyer turned it over to authorities.
For decades, the portrait had been identified as a work by the Italian
Baroque painter Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi. It appeared under that
attribution in Goudstikker’s collection records and was exhibited as a
Ghislandi in Amsterdam before the war. But a court-ordered examination
by Argentina’s National Academy of Fine Arts reached a different
conclusion, attributing the work to the Italian artist Giacomo Antonio
Melchiorre Ceruti.
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The 18th-century painting "Portrait of a Lady," allegedly stolen by
a Nazi officer during World War II, is displayed during a news
conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on Sept. 3, 2025. (AP
Photo/Christian Heit, File)
 Experts authenticated the painting
as part of Goudstikker’s collection and estimated its value at about
250,000 euros ($290,000).
Goudstikker was one of Europe’s leading art dealers before World War
II, known for a collection that included works by Rembrandt and
Vermeer. He died in a shipwreck while fleeing Amsterdam with his
family as German forces swept into the Netherlands in May 1940.
An estimated 1,100 works from his collection were illegally sold to
Hermann Göring, known as Hitler’s right-hand man, who amassed a vast
art collection during the war. It remains unclear exactly how
“Portrait of a Lady” came into the possession of Kadgien, Göring’s
financial adviser, who handled foreign currency, precious metals and
the sale of confiscated property for the Nazi regime.
Kadgien fled Europe after Germany’s defeat, first for Switzerland
and later Argentina. He died in the South American country in 1978
without having been arrested or charged with war crimes.
Lawyers for von Saher, who now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, and
spent decades trying to recover her family’s looted art, said she
has agreed to let the painting be exhibited in Argentina before
being returned to her.
During last year's raids on homes owned by Kadgien and her sister in
Mar del Plata, Argentine police also seized two 19th-century
paintings, along with other prints and engravings. Authorities are
still investigating whether any of them may also have been looted
during World War II.
___
Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
contributed to this report.
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