Nazi’s daughter gives up looted Goudstikker painting

The daughter of a Nazi official has given up all claim to a painting looted from the collection of Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, a year after it was spotted hanging above her sofa in photos on an Argentine estate agent’s website.

A federal judge in Mar del Plata approved a settlement on Friday in which Patricia Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso can avoid trial for concealing the work, Argentinian media reported.

In return they have to each pay 2.4 million pesos, around €1,400, to a local mother and child hospital.

Portrait of a Lady now passes to Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and sole heir, who has spent decades tracking down works from the collection. Her lawyers said she has agreed to let it go on show in Argentina before it is handed over, AP reported.

Estate agent’s photos
The painting had been missing since the war until August 2025, when AD journalists researching Kadgien’s father recognised it in photos of her house, which was for sale.

Friedrich Kadgien was financial adviser to Hermann Göring and fled to Argentina after the war. He died there in 1978 without ever being charged.

By the time police raided the house, the painting had gone and a tapestry of horses hung in its place. The couple were placed under house arrest and handed the work to prosecutors a week later.

Not a Ghislandi
The portrait of the Contessa Colleoni was catalogued by Goudstikker as the work of Giuseppe Ghislandi, but a court-ordered examination by Argentina’s national academy of fine arts concluded it was painted by Giacomo Ceruti, another 18th-century Italian, according to AP. Experts put its value at around $290,000.

Goudstikker died in May 1940 after falling into the hold of the ship carrying him away from the German invasion. Some 1,100 works from his stock were sold under duress to Göring and other senior Nazis, and the Dutch state returned 202 of them to his heirs in 2006.