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🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

Goudstikker heirs call return of Nazi-looted painting “historic”

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • The heirs of Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker described the definitive return of “Portrait of a Lady” as significant and historic.
  • The 18th-century painting, attributed to Italian artist Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti, was recovered in Mar del Plata after appearing in a real-estate listing photograph.
  • The restitution followed Argentina’s only criminal case involving Nazi-looted art since the postwar period, according to the heirs.

For the heirs of Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, the return of “Portrait of a Lady” closes one chapter while preserving the determination to find others. They called the restitution “significant and historic” after an Argentine court approved the agreement in Mar del Plata.

The case took a year and a week from the opening of the investigation to the judicial resolution. Marie Von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir, and her daughter, Charlene, said in a video sent to LA NACION that it was time for the painting to return to the family, which they identified as its legitimate owner.

It is time to close this chapter and for the painting to be returned to our family, its legitimate owner.

· Marie Von Saher and Charlene Von SaherThe heirs described their reaction after the Argentine court approved the painting’s return.

The work had been looted by the Nazis in the Netherlands in the early 1940s. It was later found in Mar del Plata, in the possession of relatives of a former official of Adolf Hitler. The painting appeared in a photograph used in a real-estate advertisement showing the living room of a house in Parque Luro.

We are delighted by the court’s decision to return this important work of art and thereby restore Jacques Goudstikker’s legacy.

· Marie Von Saher and Charlene Von SaherThe heirs welcomed the judicial restitution of the painting.

The discovery prompted a report in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad and led to an investigation by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Mar del Plata. Authorities searched the property, but the painting had already been removed. The couple who possessed it, Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso, were placed under house arrest and handed the work over to the court days later.

Kadgien is the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a financial expert in the German government during World War II. The painting, attributed to 18th-century Italian artist Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti, has an estimated current market value of about 250,000 euros. The heirs said the restitution marked the only criminal proceeding arising from Nazi-looted art since the postwar period and the first restitution of its kind in Argentina. “We hope it will not be the last,” they said, noting that other works belonging to the family remain to be recovered.

We hope it will not be the last.

· Marie Von Saher and Charlene Von SaherThe heirs referred to other artworks they say still belong to their family.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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