Nazi-looted ‘Portrait of a Lady’ to return to Jewish heir after 80 years in Argentina

More than 80 years after it disappeared, Portrait of a Lady is set to return to the Jewish heir of the Dutch art dealer from whose collection it was looted during the Holocaust. An Argentine court approved the painting’s transfer to Marei von Saher, the sole heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

The decision followed an agreement with Patricia Kadgien, daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a fugitive senior Nazi official, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso. The couple had faced charges of aggravated concealment after authorities alleged that they hid the painting while knowing investigators in Argentina and abroad were searching for it.

Under the agreement, they will surrender any ownership claim and hand over the work to von Saher. They will not face a criminal trial, but must remain under court supervision for two years, report their whereabouts to authorities and make payments to a children’s hospital in Mar del Plata. Reports in Argentina said each agreed to pay 2.4 million pesos, about $1,600.

The case surfaced almost by chance in August 2025, when journalists from the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad saw the painting above a green velvet sofa in photographs from a property advertisement. The advertisement disappeared after their investigation was published. Police searched the home several times, and Kadgien’s lawyer eventually handed the painting to authorities more than a week later.

Argentina’s Justice Ministry said von Saher’s representatives had conveyed her wish for the work to remain temporarily in Argentina and go on public display. “The goal is to contribute to the dissemination and raising of awareness of the looting of cultural property during the Nazi regime,” the ministry said.

“

The goal is to contribute to the dissemination and raising of awareness of the looting of cultural property during the Nazi regime.