An 18th-century Italian painting looted by the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II was spotted in a real estate listing in Argentina. Argentine officials and Interpol are investigating.
The painting “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian Baroque artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker before the Nazis stole the work, according to a Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands database.
The database lists the possible next owner of the painting as “F.G. Kadgien,” matching Friedrich Gustav Kadgien, a close adviser of powerful Nazi air force leader Hermann Goering. Goering amassed a massive art collection mostly by looting Jewish property in Nazi-occupied areas between 1936 and 1945.
Journalists at the Dutch Algemeener Dagblad newspaper spotted the painting in the home of one of his daughters, put up for sale in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
“I didn’t expect to find one of the paintings we’d been searching for just sitting there in the living room. It was surreal,” Algemeener Dagblad journalist Cyril Rosman told ABC News.
Dutch officials believe the painting could be genuine.
“Although we have not physically examined the painting and cannot verify the back of the canvas (for marks or labels that could help confirm its provenance), it is reasonably likely that this is indeed the 18th-century portrait of Countess Colleoni by Ghislandi,” Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands researchers Annelies Kool and Perry Schrier told The Associated Press.
Attempts to contact the daughter who is selling the home that contained the painting were fruitless. She told Algemeener Dagblad, “I don’t know what information you want from me, and I don’t know which painting you’re talking about,” as translated from Dutch.
Argentine authorities raided the house Tuesday but didn’t find the painting, according to the AP. Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law told the Dutch paper she still plans to try to get the painting back.
“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. It is my family’s goal to recover every artwork stolen from the Goudstikker collection and to restore Jacques’ legacy,” Marei von Saher, 81, told Algemeener Dagblad.
