Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of a fugitive Nazi officer, faces charges for allegedly concealing a $50,000 Giuseppe Ghislandi portrait that was looted during World War II. The artwork, an 18th-century Italian piece, was discovered in an online real estate listing and handed over to authorities after a police raid. The painting, valued at around $50,000, was originally stolen from Dutch-Jewish art collector Jacques Goudstikke during the war. Goudstikke’s descendants, who are seeking to reclaim the artwork, have been actively working to recover around 1,100 stolen paintings from their family’s collection, which was forced to be sold to Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, according to the Associated Press.
Following the revelation, Dutch journalists investigating Friedrich Kadgien’s time in Argentina uncovered the painting in an online real estate listing showcasing it hanging in Patricia Kadgien’s living room. After publishing a story about the discovery in the Dutch news outlet Algemeen Dagblad, the listing was promptly removed. Police swiftly raided Patricia Kadgien’s home in Mar del Plata, as well as other properties linked to her and her sister Alicia. They did not locate the painting but seized a rifle and a revolver, along with other engravings and paintings suspected of having been stolen during World War II, per the Associated Press.
Patricia Kadgien and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 62, were placed under house arrest following the raids. The couple eventually surrendered the portrait to authorities, and after a Thursday hearing, they were released from house arrest but prohibited from leaving Argentina and required to report any travel plans to the court. The painting’s future remains uncertain, with its origins still unclear. The federal prosecutor, Daniel Adler, emphasized the importance of returning the artwork to its rightful owners, stating, ‘We’re doing this simply so that the community to whom we partly owe the discovery of the work … can see these images.’
Meanwhile, the defendants’ lawyer, Carlos Murias, had previously requested a civil court to authorize an auction of the painting, but the request was denied. Marei von Saher, the heir to Goudstikker, filed a legal claim to the painting through the FBI office in New York. The FBI has not yet responded to inquiries from Fox News Digital. As the case unfolds, the search for justice continues, highlighting the long-standing efforts of Holocaust survivors and their descendants to recover looted art and artifacts that were taken during the Holocaust.