Argentina Orders Return of Nazi-Looted Painting

Published: 05 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

An 18th-century painting stolen by the Nazis from the collection of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker must be returned to his heir, an Argentine judge has ruled, bringing a decades-long search for the artwork closer to a historic resolution.

The painting, Portrait of a Lady, by Italian Baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, had been missing for more than 80 years before its whereabouts came to light in 2025. It was discovered in photographs of a property in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata, where it was hanging in the home of Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of a senior Nazi official who fled to Argentina following the Second World War.

Judge Santiago Inchausti issued the order on Friday after the parties reached an agreement over the painting’s return. Under the agreement, the artwork will be handed back to Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir.

The decision represents another significant step in the long-running international effort to recover artworks looted from Jewish families during the Nazi occupation of Europe. Thousands of paintings, sculptures and other cultural objects were stolen, confiscated or forcibly sold during the Nazi era, and many remain in private collections and museums around the world.

The story of Portrait of a Lady is closely linked to the persecution of Jewish collectors during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Goudstikker was one of the most prominent art dealers in the Netherlands before the war. His collection included hundreds of works by major European artists and was considered one of the most important private art collections in the country.

Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Goudstikker fled the country. He died shortly afterward in an accident while escaping Europe, leaving behind a collection that became vulnerable to seizure by the Nazi regime.

More than 1,000 works from his collection were taken during the Nazi occupation. Many were acquired or distributed among senior Nazi officials and institutions, while others disappeared into the international art market.

The recovery of Portrait of a Lady began decades later and thousands of miles away from the Netherlands.

The painting was identified after Dutch newspaper AD spotted it in photographs accompanying a property listing in Mar del Plata. The images showed the artwork hanging above a green sofa in the living room of a home belonging to Patricia Kadgien.

Kadgien’s father, Friedrich Kadgien, had held a senior financial position connected to the Nazi SS and was among a number of high-ranking Nazi figures who escaped to Argentina after the war.

The discovery prompted an investigation into the painting’s history and ownership.

Kadgien and her husband were subsequently charged with concealment and placed under house arrest after the artwork was identified. During a court hearing in Mar del Plata, Kadgien was seen clutching a rosary as the case progressed.

Rather than continue a prolonged legal dispute over ownership, the couple agreed to return the painting to Goudstikker’s heir. They also agreed to make a payment of approximately $3,200 to local hospitals.

The court agreement has now paved the way for the artwork to be returned to the family from which it was stolen.

For the Goudstikker heirs, the recovery is significant not simply because of the painting’s artistic value but because it represents the restoration of property taken during one of the darkest periods of European history.

The Nazi regime systematically targeted Jewish individuals and families, stripping them of businesses, homes, financial assets and cultural property. Art collections were particularly vulnerable because valuable works could be confiscated, sold under coercive conditions or transferred to Nazi officials.

The theft of Jewish-owned art was part of a much broader campaign of persecution and dispossession. After the war, governments and cultural institutions began attempting to recover the stolen works, but identifying ownership and tracing artworks through decades of private sales proved extremely difficult.

In the case of the Goudstikker collection, the Dutch state recovered around 300 works after the war. Many were eventually returned to the dealer’s heirs, but numerous other paintings remained dispersed across different countries and private collections.

The recovery of Portrait of a Lady demonstrates how some of those works can still emerge decades later.

The painting itself was created by Giuseppe Ghislandi, an Italian artist associated with the Baroque tradition and particularly known for his portraits. Works by European Old Masters can have considerable cultural and financial value, making provenance research an essential part of determining legitimate ownership.

For historians and researchers investigating Nazi-looted art, provenance is often reconstructed through a combination of wartime records, auction catalogues, ownership documents, photographs and archival material. In some cases, a single photograph can provide a crucial breakthrough by revealing an artwork in a previously unknown location.

That appears to have been the case with Ghislandi’s painting.

The discovery in Mar del Plata also underscores the complex legacy of Nazi officials who escaped Europe after the Second World War. Argentina became one of several destinations for individuals associated with the Nazi regime, and some established new lives there after the war.

The presence of artworks taken during the Nazi period in such locations has periodically generated legal and ethical disputes. Determining how an object was acquired, whether its ownership changed legitimately and whether it was originally looted can require extensive investigation.

The Argentine ruling comes amid continuing international efforts to address the legacy of Nazi cultural theft.

Although many restitution cases have been resolved, thousands of artworks are still believed to have uncertain or disputed provenance. Families of Holocaust victims and their descendants continue to search archives and private collections in an effort to recover property taken from their relatives.

The Goudstikker family has been at the centre of this effort for decades.

Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir, has pursued the recovery of artworks belonging to the collection. Some of those works have been located in museums and private collections in Europe and the United States, leading to lengthy negotiations and legal proceedings.

The return of Portrait of a Lady therefore adds another recovered work to the family’s efforts to reconstruct a collection that was shattered by Nazi persecution.

The case also carries a wider message about the importance of confronting the unresolved consequences of wartime looting.

For families whose property was stolen during the Holocaust, the passage of time does not necessarily erase the significance of those losses. Paintings that survive can become tangible evidence of lives, families and communities that were destroyed or displaced.

A recovered artwork can therefore represent more than financial compensation. It can restore part of a family’s historical record and acknowledge the injustice that occurred when the work was taken.

The Argentine court’s decision follows an agreement between the parties, allowing the case to move toward restitution rather than a prolonged ownership battle.

The hospital donation agreed by Kadgien and her husband is also part of the settlement, adding a public dimension to a case rooted in the recovery of private property.

The painting’s return will not restore the world that existed before the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. It cannot undo the persecution suffered by Goudstikker, his family or millions of other European Jews. But its recovery represents a recognition that property taken through Nazi persecution should not simply disappear into history.

For the international art world, the case serves as another reminder that the history of an artwork can be as important as the artwork itself. Museums, collectors and dealers increasingly face scrutiny over the provenance of works acquired during periods of war, persecution and political upheaval.

As descendants continue searching for works stolen from their families, paintings that have remained hidden for generations may still emerge unexpectedly.

In this case, an old photograph from a house sale helped reveal a painting that had been missing since the early years of the Second World War.

More than eight decades after its disappearance, Portrait of a Lady is now on a path back to the family of the man from whom it was stolen.

The ruling closes one chapter in the long journey of the painting, while also highlighting the unfinished global effort to identify and return cultural treasures taken from Jewish families during the Nazi era.