A Rare Nazi-Looted Painting, Lost for Some 80 Years, Turned Up in a Real-Estate Listing. Now, a Judge Has Ordered It Returned to Its Rightful Heirs
Missing since it was stolen in Amsterdam in 1945, Giacomo Ceruti’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ will be restored to its true owners, a court in Argentina has ruled in a landmark decision
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In a historic order, a judge in Argentina has determined that a recently rediscovered 18th-century portrait, missing for some 80 years after being stolen by Nazi officials, must be returned to its rightful Dutch Jewish heirs.
The ruling closes the book on a decades-long saga marked by theft, a coverup and Argentina’s dubious role in the aftermath of World War II, when the South American nation became a haven for Nazi party members and many of their ill-gotten gains.
“As far as we know, this is the first time that the Argentine justice system has recovered and restituted a painting looted by the Nazis during the Second World War,” Juan Ignacio Pascual, a lawyer representing the painting’s heirs, tells the Art Newspaper’s Mercedes Ezquiaga.
The whereabouts of Portrait of a Lady, painted by the Italian baroque artist Giacomo Ceruti, had been unknown since the day it was stolen, in 1945, from a Jewish-owned art gallery in Amsterdam. But last summer brought an unexpected revelation: Hawk-eyed observers at the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) discovered the painting in a real-estate listing in the seaside resort town of Mar del Plata. It had been photographed in a living room, hung above a green couch, in the home of Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a high-ranking Nazi official who oversaw the theft of Jewish-owned artworks in occupied countries.
Quick Fact: Mistaken attribution
Portrait of a Lady was initially thought to have been painted by the Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi. A court-ordered examination, however, has since found that the artwork is more likely by Ceruti.
“It was very surreal; we didn’t expect it,” Peter Schouten, one of the Algemeen Dagblad journalists who led the investigation, told El Pais’ Javier Lorca last August. “Photo number five [in the listing] showed a painting that has been sought in Holland for 80 years, officially listed as lost or stolen.”
Argentine police raided the villa just days later, the Associated Press’ Débora Rey and Isabel Debre reported, only to find that the painting—and its photograph in the online listing—had been removed. They seized cell phones and unregistered firearms, as well as drawings, engravings and documents from the 1940s that might advance the investigation, according to the outlet.
Kadgien and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, were eventually charged with concealment, and the painting was recovered. In court this month, the pair’s criminal case was suspended as part of a deal to return the artwork to its rightful heirs and donate roughly $3,200 to local hospitals.
Portrait of a Lady was one of more than 1,100 works in the private collection of Jacques Goudstikker, which was plundered by the Nazis when he fled the Netherlands after 1940’s German invasion. More than 200 pieces have been found and returned to Goudstikker’s family, but hundreds more are presumed to be distributed around the world. The restitution of artwork stolen during the Second World War remains a pressing global effort. This summer, researchers at Santa Clara University released an A.I. chatbot that aims to navigate stolen-art databases around the world, aiding in the artworks’ identification and repatriation. Meanwhile, a newly opened, permanent exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay will put 225 pieces of looted art on a rotating display in an effort to pair paintings with their rightful owners.
“I am thrilled with the court’s decision to restitute this important artwork and restore a piece of Jacques Goudstikker’s legacy,” Marei von Saher, Jacques Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and the painting’s official heir, tells the New York Times’ Claire Moses. “Every artwork returned matters to my family and strengthens our resolve to continue our pursuit of justice.”
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