The discovery of a painting allegedly stolen by a Nazi official who took it to Argentina has taken a new turn. On Tuesday, the Buenos Aires judiciary put the official’s daughter and her husband under house arrest for 72 hours on suspicion that they are hiding the artwork.
The couple lives in a house in the Buenos Aires province coastal city of Mar del Plata, where the painting appears to have been located after a photo of it was posted on a real estate website. Authorities have searched the house, but did not find the artwork.
“Portrait of a Lady” is a painting by Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi. It was taken by the Nazis from its original Amsterdam-based owner, art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, during World War II. The painting’s last known whereabouts were in Switzerland in 1946 at the hands of high-ranking Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, who fled Germany and ultimately settled in Argentina.
A group of Dutch journalist from the newspaper AD, who had been trying to contact the Kadgiens for years in search of the painting, stumbled upon a photo of what appears to be the original “Portrait of a Lady” hanging in the living room of one of the family’s properties, listed on a realtor’s website. The photo has since been taken down.
Police carried out four simultaneous raids in Mar del Plata on Monday. One was at the house where Kadgien’s daughter and her husband live. The couple were placed under house arrest for 72 hours, waiting for a hearing.
“So far, the painting we are looking for has not been located, nor delivered at court,” read a statement on the General Prosecutors’ Office website. Prosecutor Carlos Martínez had requested the arrests and raids during a hearing with Judge Santiago Inchausti.
On Monday, lawyer Carlos Murias told local newspaper La Capital that the family would hand the painting to the civil courts, not the criminal courts, because they considered the civil setting “the competent authority to settle this matter.” Murias called the offense of hiding contraband, the crime the prosecutor’s office has said it is investigating, “strange” and claimed that the statute of limitations for it had expired.