MISSING MASTERPIECE

Nazi’s Daughter Under House Arrest Over Disappearance of Looted Painting

The work had belonged to Amsterdam-based Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.

A couple has been placed under house arrest as part of the hunt for a missing 17th-century painting by Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi that was stolen by the Nazis. The location of “Portrait of a Lady” came to light when it appeared in a real estate listing in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The Netherlands-based newspaper Algemeen Dagblad spotted the artwork, which according to ARTnews is listed in a database for missing paintings from World War II, hanging over a sofa in a photograph for the listing. The Associated Press reports that the house belongs to Juan Carlos Cortegoso and his wife, Patricia Kadgien, daughter of Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien, who fled to Argentina at the end of the war. The painting had belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who had worked out of the Dutch capital Amsterdam prior to the Netherlands being invaded by the Nazis. The work of Ghislandi, who died in 1743, was not found during a police raid on the Mar del Plata house. According to Argentine officials, the couple was placed under house arrest for 72 hours, starting Monday, and the two are expected to be summoned for a hearing before Thursday, where they are anticipated to be charged with “concealment of theft in the context of genocide.”