Argentina Returns Nazi-Looted Painting Found in the Home of an SS Financier
The long shadow of the Nazi’s has finally receded from an eighteenth-century painting hidden for decades in Argentina’s coastal city of Mar del Plata. After nearly ninety years of dispossession, Argentine federal justice has ordered the restitution of “Portrait of a Lady” to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch Jewish art dealer who […]
After nearly nine decades of dispossession, Argentine federal justice has ordered the restitution of "Portrait of a Lady" to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch Jewish art dealer. The painting, created by Italian master Giacomo Ceruti (1698-1767), symbolizes the triumph of historical memory over the lasting impact of Holocaust-era looting.
Goudstikker's gallery, which once housed over 1,100 works, was plundered by the Nazis, leaving the artwork lost for decades. In August 2025, a Dutch correspondent for the Algemeen Dagblad, Peter Schouten, uncovered the painting in Mar del Plata, Argentina, during his investigation into the descendants of Friedrich Kadgien, a notorious SS member and financial advisor to Hermann Göring.
Kadgien, who operated as a "Financial Wizard" for the Nazi regime, fled to Argentina after World War II, where he died in 1978 without facing justice. The recovered painting, now held by the Argentine Supreme Court, will be temporarily exhibited in Argentina before returning to Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's daughter-in-law, who seeks only the rightful return of her father-in-law's property, not vengeance or financial compensation.
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