Prosecutors launch probe into Argentina couple over Nazi-looted painting

After an 18th-century painting was recovered from one of their properties, authorities in Argentina have opened a criminal investigation into the daughter of a former Nazi official and her spouse.

The investigation, which will focus on Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso, whose father was the fugitive Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien, was announced by the prosecution on Thursday.

In the late 1970s, the elder Kadgien passed away. After leaving Germany at the end of World War II, he spent his final decades there.

He is said to have brought valuable artworks, including those by Dutch artist Jacques Goudstikker, with him.

According to the meticulous records he maintained, Goudstikker had amassed a collection of nearly 1,400 pieces.

But Hermann Goring, a Nazi official, sought to seize the artwork for himself, made use of it. Goring’s financial advisor was the older Kadgien.

Giuseppe Ghislandi, an Italian portraitist well-known during the Baroque and Rococoque eras, is unknown how Kadgien acquired the painting Portrait of a Lady.

The large portrait of the Contessa Colleoni holding a book and gloves hasn’t been seen in a while. Only black and white images of the artwork, as far as researchers were aware, managed to survive.

As the Holocaust erupted in Europe, Goudstikker was forced to sell a large number of his works to Nazi officials.

The art dealer fled a genocide that would cost at least six million Jews, as well as millions of prisoners of war, dissidents, LGBTQ people, and those with disabilities in May 1940. He would ultimately pass away in a fall on board the SS Bodegraven.

Since then, Goudstikker’s heirs have been pursuing the recovery of his collection.

Portrait of a Lady, which was initially lost, suddenly reappeared last month as a result of online sleuthing.

The late Kadgien’s dealings with the Nazis were the subject of a real estate listing that Algemeen Dagblad had recently discovered for his daughter Patricia Kadgien.

Portrait of a Lady was depicted in a listing that was arranged above a couch of green velvet.

The journalists released their findings on August 25, and shortly thereafter, police in Argentina raided the Mar del Plata residence.

However, it was impossible to locate the painting. Authorities instead reported finding other 19th-century paintings that they thought might be Nazi-looted artwork.

Where Portrait of a Lady was once taken, a tapestry was discovered hanging. Meanwhile, it appeared as though the real estate listing had been deleted.

Since then, Patricia Kadgien and her sister have been searched for several properties. The painting’s recovery was finally announced on Wednesday.

However, during the hearing on Thursday, it was revealed that Kadgien, 59, and Cortegoso, 62, were being sued for trying to cover up their relationship.

Despite being “aware that the artwork was being sought by the criminal justice system and international authorities,” prosecutor Carlos Martinez claimed the couple had hid the painting. He claimed that that was a form of obstructing the justice system and concealing.

According to Martinez, “they only turned it in after a number of police raids.”

Patricia Kadgien and Cortegoso were briefly placed under house arrest on Monday, but that was changed to a 180-day travel ban and a requirement that they must obtain court approval before leaving.

This week, a couple’s attorney reportedly requested that the couple sell the painting, but that request was turned down by the couple.

Meanwhile, Martinez informed journalists on Thursday that Goudstikker’s heir Marei von Saher had already reached out to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to arrange the return of the painting.

He explained that the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum’s Portrait of a Lady request had been made by the prosecution.