Argentine judge orders Nazi-looted 17th-century Italian portrait returned to heir
A court in Argentina approved a deal that will see the painting "Portrait of a Lady" returned to Maril von Saher, the sole surviving heir of Dutch collector Jacques Goudstikker, after the daughter of a former Nazi official relinquished her claim.
An Argentine judge approved a settlement that will return a 17th-century Italian painting, seized by Nazis from Dutch Jewish collector Jacques Goudstikker, to his heir Maril von Saher. The agreement requires the daughter of former Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien to abandon her claim to the work in exchange for avoiding a criminal trial and serving two years of supervised supervision, during which she must make payments to a local hospital and report her whereabouts.
The portrait, identified by Dutch media in a 2025 real-estate photo of a house in Mar del Plata, had been hanging in the home of Patricia Kadgien, Friedrich Kadgien’s daughter. Argentine authorities charged Kadgien and her husband with aggravated cover-up last year for concealing the artwork despite ongoing investigations.
Originally listed in Goudstikker’s collection as a work by Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, a court-ordered examination by Argentina’s National Academy of Fine Arts re-attributed it to Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti. Experts confirmed its provenance in Goudstikker’s collection and valued it at roughly $290,000.
Goudstikker, a leading pre-war European art dealer, lost an estimated 1,100 works that were sold under duress to Nazi officials after Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940. The path by which the portrait entered Kadgien’s possession remains unclear, though he served as a financial adviser to Hermann Göring.
Von Saher, who resides in Greenwich, Connecticut, said she will allow the painting to be exhibited in Argentina before it is transferred to her. Argentine police continue to investigate additional artworks seized from Kadgien’s properties for possible wartime looting.