An Argentine court on Friday approved the return of the painting Portrait of a Lady, looted during the Holocaust from Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, to his sole heir, Marei von Saher, more than 80 years after it disappeared.
The decision was made as part of an agreement with Patricia Kadgien, daughter of fugitive senior Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso. The two were charged last year with aggravated concealment after authorities alleged that they had hidden the painting despite knowing that investigators in Argentina and abroad were searching for it.
According to a statement issued by Argentina's Justice Ministry on Friday, the couple will relinquish any claim of ownership over the work and agree to hand it over to von Saher. In return, they will not face a criminal trial, but will remain under court supervision for two years, must keep authorities informed of their whereabouts, and make payments to a children's hospital in Mar del Plata, the city where they live.
If they violate the terms of the agreement during the next two years, authorities may reopen proceedings against them. According to reports in Argentina, however, each spouse agreed to pay 2.4 million pesos to the hospital, only about $1,600 each, or roughly NIS 9,600 combined.
A statement from the Argentine government stressed that von Saher's legal representatives had conveyed her wish for the work to remain temporarily in Argentina and be displayed to the public.
"The goal is to contribute to the dissemination and raising of awareness of the looting of cultural property during the Nazi regime," the Justice Ministry said.
What happened to the 'Portrait of a Lady' painting?
The case came to light almost by chance in August 2025. Journalists from the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, who were investigating the past of the elder Kadgien, noticed the painting hanging above a green velvet sofa in photographs accompanying a real estate advertisement for the sale of his daughter's home in the Parque Luro neighborhood of the resort city of Mar del Plata.
Within hours of the investigation's publication, the advertisement disappeared from the internet. Police raided the home several times, but the painting was no longer hanging there and could not be found. More than a week later, Kadgien's lawyer handed the work over to the authorities.
The elder Kadgien served as financial adviser to Hermann Göring and handled foreign currency, precious metals, and the sale of confiscated property for the Nazi regime. Following Germany's defeat, he initially fled to Switzerland and later to Argentina, where he died in 1978 without ever being arrested or put on trial for war crimes.
The painting had been part of Goudstikker's renowned collection. Goudstikker was one of Europe's leading art dealers before World War II. After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Goudstikker fled with his family but was killed in an accident aboard the ship.
About 1,100 works from his collection were subsequently sold unlawfully and under duress to senior Nazi officials, a large portion of them to Göring.
For decades, "Portrait of a Lady" was attributed to the Italian Baroque painter Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, and it was initially reported as such when the painting was discovered. However, an examination ordered by the court and carried out by Argentina's National Academy of Fine Arts determined that the Italian artist Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti had actually painted the work.
Experts confirmed that it was the painting that had belonged to Goudstikker's collection and estimated its value at approximately €250,000, or about $290,000.
Von Saher, who lives in Connecticut and has spent decades working to recover artworks looted from her family, agreed that the painting would first be exhibited in Argentina and only afterward transferred to her possession.
Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to examine two 19th-century works, as well as engravings and prints seized from homes belonging to the Kadgien family, in an effort to determine whether they too were looted during the Holocaust.