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Argentine prosecutors have charged the daughter of a fugitive Nazi officer with attempting to hide an 18th-century Italian painting that was looted during World War II and had not been seen publicly in 80 years.
The charges came a day after Patricia Kadgien, the 59-year-old daughter of Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien who allegedly stole it from a leading European art dealer during World War II, handed ‘Portrait of a Lady’ over to authorities. The painting by Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi likely dates back to around 1710, with a value of around $50,000, the Associated Press reported, citing one art expert.
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The heir of the painting’s original owner, Dutch-Jewish art collector Jacques Goudstikke, who died in a shipwreck while fleeing Amsterdam during the war, has reportedly filed a legal claim to reclaim the artwork. Goudstikke’s descendants have made efforts to recover around 1,100 paintings that have been missing since he was forced to sell his extensive art collection to Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, according to the Associated Press.
Dutch journalists, while investigating Friedrich Kadgien’s time spent in Argentina, discovered the painting in an online real estate listing that showed the artwork hanging in Patricia Kadgien’s living room. Shortly after publishing a story about it in Dutch news outlet Algemeen Dagblad last week, the listing was removed, the Associated Press reported.
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Police promptly raided Patricia Kadgien’s home in the city of Mar del Plata, as well as other properties linked to her and her sister Alicia. They did not find the painting, but seized a rifle and a revolver, as well as other engravings and paintings that are also believed to have been stolen during World War II, according to the Associated Press.
Following the raids, Patricia Kadgien and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 62, had been placed under house arrest. The couple handed the portrait over to authorities on Wednesday, and after the Thursday hearing, they were released from house arrest but prohibited from leaving the country and must inform the court of any departures from their address, according to AP.
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It is not yet clear where the painting will go next or how it came into the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, who died in 1978 in Argentina after fleeing the war, AP reported.
“We’re doing this simply so that the community to whom we partly owe the discovery of the work … can see these images,” federal prosecutor Daniel Adler said in a press conference about the artwork.
Earlier in the week, the defendants’ lawyer, Carlos Murias, asked a civil court to authorize the auction of the painting, but the request was denied, according to AP.
Marei von Saher, the heir to Goudstikker, allegedly filed a legal claim to the painting through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office in New York, AP reported, citing Prosecutor Carlos Martínez.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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