The daughter of a senior Nazi official accused of owning a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer during the Holocaust has been put under house arrest after the artwork went missing shortly after apparently being rediscovered.
Portrait of a Lady, which was taken from Dutch-Jewish collector Jacques Goudstikker after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, was presumed lost for around 80 years.
However, last month, a painting closely resembling the work was spotted in an estate agent’s photographs of an Argentine villa belonging to Patricia Kadgien, daughter of close Hitler aide Friedrich Kadgien.
When approached by Dutch paper AD, which allegedly identified the painting, Kadgien said: “I don’t know what information you want from me, and I don’t know what painting you’re talking about either.”
A short time later, police raided the home but found the painting from the photographs had disappeared.
Now, a judge at the Federal Court at Mar Del Plata has placed Kadgien and her husband under a 72-hour house arrest on suspicion of interfering in a police investigation.
Portrait of a Lady was one of around 800 pieces of art stolen from Goudstikker by Hermann Göring, the supreme commander of the Nazi air force.
It eventually ended up in the hands of Friedrich Kadgien, who ultimately escaped to Argentina.
Gouldstikker died in 1940 while attempting to flee the Netherlands by sea. His body was found with a small notebook detailing his entire collection.
He had one son, Edo, who died in 1996 and whose wife, Marei von Saher, 81, is unwavering in her commitment to bringing the stolen art home.
“My search for the artworks owned by my father-in-law Jacques Goudstikker started at the end of the 90s and I won’t give up,” she told AD. “My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection and restore his legacy.”
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