Argentina Returns Nazi-Looted Painting Found in the Home of an SS Financier

Ninety-eight years after the Nazi’s plundered and displaced a 18th-century painting in Mar del Plata, Argentina, justice has been served. The Federal Supreme Court has ordered the restitution of the artwork, "Portrait of a Lady," to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch Jewish art dealer who perished fleeing the Nazis in 1940. The painting, attributed to the Italian master Giacomo Ceruti, was discovered in Argentina after a diligent investigation led by Peter Schouten of Dutch news outlet Algemeen Dagblad.

Goudstikker, a prominent Jewish art dealer, had amassed an extensive collection of over 1,100 artworks before the Nazis looted his gallery in Amsterdam. The painting was lost to history until Schouten stumbled upon it while investigating the descendants of a notorious SS financier, Friedrich Kadgien. Kadgien, known as the "Financial Wizard" of the Nazi regime, served as a key financial ally to Hermann Göring and was instrumental in the looting of Jewish merchants and occupied territories during WWII.

Kadgien fled to Argentina following the war, where he lived undetected until his death in 1978. The painting's return is a significant victory for historical memory and a stark reminder of the Holocaust-era looting that plagued Europe. It highlights Argentina's unique history as a refuge for Nazi war criminals, with Friedrich Kadgien serving as a stark example of this duality.

The restitution of "Portrait of a Lady" has been a long and arduous journey, with the present transaction serving a reparational purpose for the victims of this cultural theft. The painting, now under the custody of the Argentine Supreme Court, will be donated to a local hospital before being loaned to a Buenos Aires museum for a temporary exhibition.