Online property ad shows looted Nazi war art, triggers raid • The Register
Police in Argentina reportedly raided a home in a coastal town on Monday after someone spotted a real estate ad that included images of art the Nazis looted in the Second World War.
According to a report in Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, a painting titled “Portrait of a Lady” by 17th Century Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi, was the property of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who died shortly after the start of the war.
Hermann Göring and other Nazis acquired many of his collection, which contained over 1,000 artworks, at very low prices. Records from 1946 indicate the painting’s last owner was Göring’s senior aide Friedrich Kadgien, who moved to Argentina after the war.
Authorities listed the artwork as missing, but the trail went cold – until Kadgien’s daughter put her Argentine property in Mar del Plata up for sale, and the brochure photographer captured the painting in the background. Dutch journalists spotted the masterpiece in the online brochure and attempted to make contact with Kadgien’s daughter before informing the local police.
However, they appear to have acted too late. The artwork is reportedly no longer on display and wasn’t recovered in the raid.
“The painting is not in the house,” prosecutor Carlos Martínez told local media, adding that in its place was a tapestry. “It’s clear that where we found a tapestry before, not long ago, there was something else,” an investigator commented.
Although it has been 80 years since the war ended, the search for ill-gotten Nazi-loot continues, and Kadgien has been named as a recipient of such goods. According to the Dutch newspaper, after the war was over, the former SS member fled to Switzerland where he was interrogated by US service personnel, who described him as “not a true Nazi, but a snake of the lowest order,” who “appears to possess substantial assets, could still be of value to us.” Kadgien moved to Argentina after the war, set up a small business, and died in 1978.
Local agency Robles Casas & Campos displayed the painting in a property listing but later removed it from the company’s website. The agency has not responded to requests for comment or more information.
Journalists at Algemeen Dagblad attempted to contact Kadgien’s daughter on WhatsApp but were rebuffed.
“There’s no reason to think this could be a copy,” Annelies Kool and Perry Schrier from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands told the paper.
“The dimensions also seem to match the information we have. Definitive confirmation can be obtained by looking at the back of the painting; there may still be marks or labels on it that confirm its provenance.”
The police haven’t brought formal charges against Kadgien’s daughter due to a lack of evidence, but since the Nazis took it as part of their genocidal crimes, prosecutors face no statute of limitations on future charges. Online art dealers will be on guard if the painting appears at auction.
“My search for the artwork of my father-in-law, Jacques Goudstikker, began in the late 1990s and I have not given up to this day,” daughter-in-law Marei von Saher told the paper. “It is my family’s goal to recover every artwork stolen from the Goudstikker collection and to restore Jacques’ legacy.” ®
