Daughter of Nazi officer who stole 'Portrait of a Lady' and her husband
charged with cover-up
[September 05, 2025]
By BRUNO VERDENELLI and ISABEL DEBRE
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AP) — Prosecutors in Argentina on Thursday
charged the daughter of a fugitive Nazi official with trying to hide an
18th-century painting from authorities following revelations that it had
been stolen from a Jewish art dealer during World War II.
The federal prosecutor in charge of the case announced the cover-up
charge a day after Patricia Kadgien, one of the daughters of high-level
Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien, handed “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian
artist Giuseppe Ghislandi to the Argentine judiciary eight decades after
it was stolen.
The fate of the work remains unclear, pending a decision in the case.
The heir of Jacques Goudstikker — the Dutch-Jewish art collector who
owned the painting before Nazis confiscated his world-famous inventory —
has made a legal claim to get the painting back, her lawyers have said.
Goudstikker died in a shipwreck in 1940 while fleeing the Netherlands as
German troops advanced. He sold his collection, which included
Rembrandts and Vermeers, under duress and far below market price. At
least 1,100 stolen works from his gallery remain missing.
The Argentine court has asked that the painting be displayed at the
Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires ahead of any further transfer abroad.
The museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patricia Kadgien, 59, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 62, have
been under house arrest on suspicion of concealing the painting since
police raided their home on Monday for the second time in as many weeks
without finding “Portrait of a Lady.”
Kadgien, with disheveled dirty-blond hair and sunglasses on her head,
wore a look that mixed concern and puzzlement as she listened to
Prosecutor Carlos Martínez in a jam-packed courtroom. Martínez said that
Kadgien's and her husband's efforts to hide the painting over several
days following its sudden appearance in a real estate listing amounted
to obstruction of justice.
Cortegoso gazed straight ahead, his arms crossed and a stern expression
on his face.
After the hearing the couple was released from house arrest but barred
from traveling abroad and required to notify the court whenever they
leave their registered address.
Photos of the painting hanging in Kadgien’s living room in Mar del Plata
surfaced last month for the first time in eight decades in an online
real estate advertisement.
Dutch journalists investigating Kadgien’s past in Argentina – where he
took refuge after the collapse of the Third Reich – spotted “Portrait of
a Lady” hanging above a green velvet couch in the living room during a
3D tour of the house for sale.
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Patricia Kadgien, right, one of the daughters of fugitive Nazi
official Friedrich Kadgien, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso,
left, attend a court hearing in the case of the theft of the
18th-century Italian "Portrait of a Lady," which was taken from a
Jewish collector during World War II, in Mar del Plata, Argentina,
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christian Heit)
After recognizing it as the same portrait listed as missing in
international archives of Nazi-looted art, the newspaper Algemeen
Dagblad published an exposé on Aug. 25 that grabbed headlines around
the world.
Alerted by international police agency Interpol, Argentine
authorities raided the house and other properties belonging to
Patricia Kadgien and her sister Alicia, seizing a rifle, a
.32-caliber revolver and several paintings from the 19th-century
that they suspect may have been similarly stolen during WWII.
But police couldn’t find “Portrait of a Lady.” They found scuff
marks and a pastoral tapestry on Patricia Kadgien's living room wall
where the portrait had been photographed.
The real estate ad, first posted in February, was swiftly taken
down. Prosecutors on Thursday said that security footage showed
people removing the “for sale” sign from Kadgien’s front yard as
media scrutiny intensified last week.
In presenting the charges, Martínez told the court that the couple
was “aware that the artwork was being sought by the criminal justice
system and international authorities” but nevertheless went to
lengths to hide it.
“It was only after several police raids that they turned it in," he
said.
With the defendants under house arrest on Monday, their lawyer,
Carlos Murias, filed a petition with a civil court in Mar del Plata
asking that Kadgien be allowed to auction the painting.
The court rejected the request, arguing that it lacked jurisdiction
given the painting's provenance.
Prosecutor Martínez told reporters on Thursday that his office was
informed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Marei von Saher,
the heir to art dealer Goudstikker, lodged a legal claim to
“Portrait of a Lady” at the bureau’s New York office.
The FBI declined to comment.
___
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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