A Nazi-looted painting discovered last year in photographs from a real estate listing for a house in Argentina will be restituted to Marei von Saher, heir to the Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, in a case her lawyers say is virtually unprecedented because the work was recovered from private hands through criminal proceedings.
Portrait of a Lady, an 18th-century painting by Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (previously attributed to Giuseppe Ghislandi) valued at around €250,000, had remained for decades in the possession of the family of Friedrich Kadgien, an official in the Nazi regime who fled Europe after the Second World War and eventually settled in Mar del Plata.
“As far as we know, this is the first time that the Argentine justice system has recovered and restituted a painting looted by the Nazis during the Second World War,” Juan Ignacio Pascual, one of the Argentine lawyers representing Von Saher and the Goudstikker family, tells The Art Newspaper. Pascual worked on the case alongside the Argentine lawyers Herberto Robinson and Guillermo Brady.
Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady in a listing on the estate agent Robles Casas & Campos’s website in August 2025 Photo: Robles Casas & Campos
On 4 September, federal judge Santiago Inchausti approved an agreement suspending the criminal proceedings against Patricia Kadgien, Friedrich Kadgien’s daughter, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, who had been charged with aggravated concealment. The couple avoided trial by agreeing to a series of conditions, including expressly and irrevocably relinquishing any present or future claim to the painting.
Pascual says his client agreed to the arrangement because recovering the painting was her main objective. “And this is what is most exceptional, the restitution did not take place through an agreement with a state or a museum, as has happened in many international cases involving Nazi-looted art,” he says. “Here, the work was in private hands, and it was through an Argentine criminal proceeding, with the involvement of the plaintiffs and the work of the Argentine justice system, particularly the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Mar del Plata, that a judicial decision was obtained ordering its restitution to the heirs of its last legitimate owner.”
“We are not aware of any comparable case involving a Nazi-looted work found in private hands whose restitution to its rightful heirs was ordered as part of criminal proceedings,” Pascual adds. “In that sense, we consider this a virtually unprecedented case.”
A recent hearing in a Mar del Plata court as part of the criminal proceedings related to Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti's Portrait of a Lady Photo: Belén Cano, Ministerio Público Fiscal
Goudstikker fled the Netherlands after the German invasion in 1940 and died during the journey. His gallery, which held more than 1,100 works, was looted by the Nazis. His heirs have spent decades seeking the return of the collection, including securing the restitution of 202 works from the Dutch government in 2006.
“I am thrilled with the court’s decision to restitute this important artwork,” Von Saher said in a statement provided to The Art Newspaper through Yaél M. Weitz, counsel at the New York law firm Freedman Normand Friedland. “More than 80 years ago, this painting was stolen by the Nazis, first by [Hermann] Göring, then by Kadgien, whose descendants held it for decades afterward. It is time for this chapter to close, and for the painting to be returned to my family, and to restore a piece of Jacques Goudstikker’s legacy.”
Von Saher, who lives in the US and is the widow of Goudstikker’s only son, hopes the painting can remain in Argentina temporarily and be exhibited publicly before it is returned to the family. Weitz says she is in contact with museums in Argentina, and Pascual confirms that several venues are under consideration.
The Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires had been mentioned as a possible venue to exhibit the painting before its restitution. A representative for the museum tells The Art Newspaper that it has received no new information from the Goudstikker heirs and, “given the discretion required by a case of such public significance”, it will await the family’s decision on how and when to announce the painting’s destination.
