Argentina orders restitution of looted 18th-century painting found in real estate listing
An Argentine federal court has approved a settlement to return the 18th-century artwork Portrait of a Lady to the heir of Dutch Jewish art collector Jacques Goudstikker after the piece was spotted in a real estate photograph in Mar del Plata.
Restitution order in Mar del Plata
On September 4, 2026, Argentine federal judge Santiago Inchausti approved a formal settlement ordering the return of the 18th-century painting Portrait of a Lady to Marei von Saher. Von Saher is the daughter-in-law and sole living heir of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The oil canvas, valued by art market appraisers at approximately 250,000 euros, had been missing for eight decades following the looting of Goudstikker's gallery in Amsterdam. Judge Inchausti confirmed that the judicial resolution in Mar del Plata settles the ownership dispute after decades of international searches for the lost collection.
Federal prosecutor Carlos Martinez outlined the core obligation of the suspects who held the canvas.
The accused essentially undertook to waive all rights to the painting, which will be returned to the family of the gallery owner.
Discovery in an online property listing
The painting resurfaced in 2025 after an alert Dutch journalist spotted the canvas hanging on a wall in photographs published for a real estate listing in the coastal city of Mar del Plata. The property was registered to Patricia Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso. Kadgien is the daughter of Friedrich Gustav Kadgien, a former official nicknamed the magician of Nazi finance who participated in liquidating stolen Jewish property before fleeing to South America after World War II. Argentine federal authorities indicted Kadgien and Cortegoso for receiving stolen property in September 2025, placing the couple under house arrest and transferring the painting to judicial custody.
- Nazi forces loot over 1,000 artworks from Jacques Goudstikker in Amsterdam as he dies while fleeing.
- A Dutch journalist spots Portrait of a Lady in an Argentine real estate advertisement.
- Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso are indicted for receiving stolen property.
- Federal Judge Santiago Inchausti ratifies the restitution settlement in Mar del Plata.
Settlement conditions and artwork condition
Under the terms ratified by the federal court, Kadgien and Cortegoso agreed to surrender every legal claim to the artwork in exchange for the conditional suspension of criminal proceedings against them. The settlement also requires the couple to pay a donation of 4.8 million Argentine pesos (converted in reports to between 2,200 and 2,750 euros) to local public hospitals. Physical assessments carried out while the artwork remained in judicial custody over the past year confirmed that the canvas is well preserved. Sourced attributions identify the artist as either Italian painter Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (1698–1767) or Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi (1655–1743).
The Goudstikker collection and exhibition plans
Portrait of a Lady was among more than 1,000 artworks confiscated from Goudstikker's commercial inventory after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940. Goudstikker died in an accident during his flight from the country, and senior German officials subsequently divided his gallery's holdings among themselves. Following the war, the Dutch government recovered roughly 300 works from the plundered cache and later returned most of those pieces to Goudstikker's heirs.
Von Saher plans to display the recovered painting publicly in Argentina before transporting it to the Netherlands. The temporary display is scheduled for the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires to support educational initiatives on wartime cultural looting.
