Argentine authorities believe they may have recovered a Nazi-looted painting that appeared in a real-estate listing for a home in the coastal town of Mar del Plata.
El Día del Mar del Plata reported on Tuesday that police conducted several raids in the neighborhood surrounding the home, which became the subject of widespread intrigue after the Dutch outlet Algemeen Dagblad ran an investigation into the listing last week. That report revealed that the home belonged to Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of a Nazi official.
Tuesday brought reports in the English-language press that Kadgien and her husband had placed under house arrest by Argentine authorities and that they had been accused of obstructing the investigation.
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But El Día’s report said that Kadgien had, in fact, turned over the painting, which is thought to have been painted by Giuseppe Ghislandi, an artist associated with the Italian Baroque movement. El Día reported that she had “decided to make the painting available to the Civil Court.”
The painting appears in a registry of lost art and is listed as “missing.” It once belonged to the Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled Amsterdam amid the rise of the Nazis and died in an accident shortly thereafter. His collection featured many works by Old Masters painters, some of which have been returned to his heirs by international museums in the past couple decades.
La Nación, Argentina’s paper of record, has reported that Kadgien asserts that she is the rightful owner of the work, which she said she inherited.