More than eight decades after the Nazis plundered thousands of artworks from Jewish collectors across Europe, one of the long-lost paintings has resurfaced in an unlikely place: a real estate listing in Argentina.
In promotional images for a luxury home near Buenos Aires, a portrait hanging above the living room sofa caught the attention of art historians. Closer investigation revealed that the work is “Portrait of a Lady” (also known as “Lady Colletti”), by Giuseppe Ghislandi, the celebrated Baroque portraitist better known as Fra Galgario.
The painting was once part of the vast collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch Jewish art dealer. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Goudstikker was forced to abandon his holdings while fleeing the country. He died during his escape, and his collection of more than 1,100 artworks was seized in a forced sale orchestrated by Hermann Göring, the powerful commander of the Luftwaffe.
According to research by the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad and the central database of lost cultural property, this particular painting was taken by Friedrich Kadgin, an SS officer and close associate of Göring. After the war, Kadgin fled Europe and eventually settled in Argentina, where he lived until his death in 1978.
The recent discovery came when one of Kadgin’s heirs listed the family’s seaside home for sale. Photographs of the interior, published by a local real estate agency, inadvertently revealed the missing portrait. Dutch experts quickly matched the image to archival records, confirming the striking resemblance in scale and composition.
Following the revelation, Argentine prosecutors ordered a search of the property. However, when authorities entered the home, the painting was no longer there. Police did recover documents and several firearms, but the artwork itself remains unaccounted for.
For decades, parts of the Goudstikker collection have been recovered and returned to the family. In 2006, more than 200 looted works were restituted and later exhibited in Dutch museums. Yet “Portrait of a Lady” remained classified as missing—until now.
Speaking to the Dutch press, Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law who has led the family’s restitution campaign for over 30 years, reaffirmed her commitment:
“I began this search in the 1990s and never gave up. Our goal is to recover every single stolen artwork and preserve Jacques’s legacy.”
Though the real estate listing was swiftly removed from the agency’s website, the discovery highlights the unfinished story of Nazi-looted art. Thousands of cultural treasures taken during World War II are still missing, and their reappearance—sometimes in the most unexpected of places—continues to fuel the pursuit of justice and historical restitution.
