An Argentine court has ordered that “‘Portrait of a lady,”’ an 18th-century painting looted by the Nazis in the 1940s that was discovered last year in Mar del Plata, be delivered to the heirs of the original owners.
The painting was originally owned by Jacques Goudstikker, a Jewish art dealer based in Amsterdam who was later looted by Nazis. The artwork was likely last seen in the 1940s at the hands of high-ranking Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien, who fled Germany and ultimately settled in Argentina.
The artwork was discovered in August 2025 after Dutch journalist Peter Schouten, who was investigating the fate of the painting, spotted it on a real estate agent’s website in Argentina. The house in question belonged to one of Kadgien’s children, Patricia.
The formal restitution was carried out in a hearing in Mar del Plata on Friday. Judicial authorities gathered with attorneys for Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and official heir, and Patricia Kadgien and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, the couple who had the painting in their house.
Per the terms of the settlement, the couple renounced any claims over the painting, agreeing as well to not file any appeals to reverse the ruling. Kadgien and Cortegoso, who will be on probation for two years, will also have to make a donation of AR$4.8 million (around US$3,140 at the official rate) to a local hospital.
The couple, who had initially been charged with possessing and concealing a piece of art that had been stolen in the context of genocide, took the plea bargain to avoid going to trial. The settlement cleared the path for the painting to be restored to Von Saher, who also declined to pursue further charges against the couple.
Citing Von Saher’s attorneys, Clarín media outlet reported that the Goudstikker’s heir intends to have a showing of the painting in Argentina before it is taken back to the Netherlands in order to “create awareness of the genocide that was carried out by the Nazis.” The painting is currently being held in the headquarters of the Argentine foreign ministry.
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Finding the painting
Before World War II, the artwork was owned by Goudstikker, who was forced to sell his collection to Nazi officials.
He fled the Netherlands with his wife and son in 1940 but tragically died in an accident on the boat. His family arrived in the U.S. with a pamphlet he kept in his luggage, detailing all of the paintings in his art dealership’s possession.
The more than 1,100 artworks in Goudstikker’s collection were purchased at extremely low prices by high-ranking Nazi officials, including infamous German Field Marshal and art collector Herman Göring.
According to an investigation published by Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad (AD), documentation shows that in 1946, SS official Friedrich Kadgien had two of Goudstikker’s paintings in his possession.
A right-hand man of Göring, Kadgien fled to Switzerland when Germany lost the war in 1945. He then escaped to Brazil and made his way to Argentina, where he settled, founded a company, and raised a family. He died in Buenos Aires in 1978.
“Portrait of a lady” had been registered on an international list of missing art. It was also listed as missing by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE, in its original acronym), an organization that focuses on artwork looted by the Nazis. Before being spotted last year in Mar del Plata, it is believed the painting was last seen in Switzerland in 1946.
Dutch journalist Peter Schouten, along with AD journalists Cyril Rosman and John van den Oetelaar, had been trying for years to get in contact with Kadgien’s living daughters, but the family always refused to talk to them.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact them, in 2025 Schouten headed to Mar del Plata in an attempt to reach them in person. After failing to make contact, Schouten noticed that one of the family’s properties was listed on a realtor’s website. Scrolling through the listing, he tumbled upon a photo of what appeared to be the original “Portrait of a lady.”
Authorities raided the house twice but did not find the artwork there. An Argentine court charged Patricia Kadgien with the crime of aggravated cover-up for allegedly trying to hide the painting. In September 2025, Kagdien finally handed it over to the court after a failed attempt to transfer the judicial investigation to a civil jurisdiction.
Further tests proved that the picture indeed showed the original artwork. Although initially attributed to Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, art experts later concluded that “Portrait of a lady” was most likely painted by Giacomo Ceruti, another Northern Italian artist working in the same period