Argentina: a painting stolen by the Nazis will be returned to the heiress of a Jewish gallery owner

Stolen by the Nazis, found thanks to a real estate ad. The Argentine courts ordered on Friday September 4 the return of the oil on canvas “Portrait of a Lady” by the Italian Giacomo Ceruti to the heiress of the Jewish gallery owner who owned the work before the Second World War, Jacques Goudstikker. The painting stolen by the Nazis was found last year after the publication of a real estate advertisement.

The federal judge, Santiago Inchausti, indicated that “he would order the return of the painting to the heiress”, in accordance with an agreement reached between the parties, a year after the oil on canvas by the Italian Giacomo Ceruti (1698-1767) was identified in a photo appearing in a real estate advertisement, after decades of research.

“Portrait of a Lady” was owned by Patricia Kadgien, daughter of former Nazi dignitary Friedrich Kadgien. She and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, were charged with receiving stolen property last September and placed under house arrest.

The affair began with the publication of a real estate advertisement for the Kadgiens’ house in Mar del Plata (east). A Dutch newspaper noted the presence of the missing work in a photo.

Seized, the Argentine justice system carried out searches and the painting was found.

The work belonged to gallery owner Jacques Goudstikker, whose collection was looted by the Nazi occupiers in the Netherlands during World War II.

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The agreement between the parties provides that the couple accepts the return of the painting to Jacques Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir, Marei von Saher, and renounces any legal claim. It also provides for a donation of 4.8 million pesos (around 2,200 euros) to local hospitals.

“The defendants have essentially undertaken to waive all rights to the painting which will be returned to the gallery owner’s family,” federal prosecutor Carlos Martinez explained to AFP.

The work “is in a good state of conservation and the expertise has confirmed its authenticity,” he added.

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300 paintings found

Initially, the Kadgiens’ defense tried to argue that the offense was time-barred. However, crimes committed in the context of genocide are imprescriptible, in accordance with Argentine legislation and international law.

Friedrich Kadgien was financial advisor to the German war criminal Hermann Göring, who during the Nazi regime had amassed a colossal fortune, notably through the theft of Jewish property.

Thousands of Nazis crossed the Atlantic after the war, passing through or taking refuge in Argentina and Chile in particular.

The painting has been entrusted to the Argentine Supreme Court, where the representatives of the heiress will have to take steps for its effective restitution.

The gallery owner fled his country a few days after the invasion in 1940, leaving behind a multitude of works which were divided among senior German officials. “Portrait of a Lady” was among more than 1,000 works of art stolen from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

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After the war, the Dutch state recovered some 300, most of which were then returned to the gallery owner’s heirs.

The painting found in Argentina could remain in the country for a little longer for awareness purposes. “The family’s intention is for him to be on display in Buenos Aires for at least a year,” Guillermo Brady, Marei von Saher’s lawyer, told AFP.

With AFP