A court in Argentina has placed Patricia Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso under house arrest as police search for a Nazi-looted painting by Giuseppe Ghislandi. The work, which once belonged to Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker, was spotted in a real estate listing for their house in Mar del Plata by the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. The listing has been deleted, and police failed to find the painting during a raid, but prosecutors are also investigating two other works held by another of Kadgien's daughters.
This case highlights the ongoing global effort to recover art looted by the Nazis during World War II, particularly works from prominent Jewish collectors like Goudstikker. The involvement of a Nazi official's family in Argentina underscores how looted art can surface far from its origins, and the house arrest order signals that authorities are taking such restitution claims seriously, even decades after the war.