Artwork looted by Nazis 80 years ago spotted in estate agent ad

An Italian master painting stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam has been spotted on the website of an estate agent selling a house in Argentina, more than 80 years after it was taken.

A photo shows Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi hanging above a sofa inside a property near Buenos Aires once owned by a senior Nazi official who moved to South America after the Second World War.

The painting, which features on a database of lost wartime art, was traced when the house was put up for sale by the official’s daughter, Dutch newspaper AD reports.

The artwork is among hundreds looted from art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who helped other Jews escape during the war.

Goudstikker died at sea in an accident escaping the Netherlands and is buried in England.

Over 1,100 works from Goudstikker’s collection were bought up in a forced sale by senior Nazis after his death, including Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

Post-war, some of the works were recovered in Germany and put on display in Amsterdam’s Rijkmuseum as part of the Dutch national collection. Goudstikker’s sole-surviving heir, daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, took possession of 202 pieces in 2006, AD reports.

But one painting, a portrait of the Contessa Colleoni by late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi, remained missing until now.

AD’s investigation unearthed wartime documents suggesting it was in the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, an SS officer and senior financial aide to Göring, who fled to Switzerland in 1945 before moving to Brazil then Argentina, where he became a successful businessman.

Kadgien – described as a “snake of the lowest sort” by American interrogators – died in 1979. A US file seen by AD also said notes on Kadgien included the line “Appears to possess substantial assets, could still be of value to us”.

The paper said it had made attempts over several years to speak to the late Nazi’s two daughters in Buenos Aires about their father and the missing artworks, but to no avail.

But reporters had a stroke of good luck when one of Kadgien’s daughters put the home, once owned by her father, up for sale with an estate agent specialising in expensive Argentine property.

“There is no reason to think this could be a copy,” said Annelies Kool and Perry Schrier of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) who reviewed the images for AD.

Another looted artwork – a floral still-life by the 17th-century Dutch painter Abraham Mignon – was also spotted on one of the sister’s social media, AD reports.

All attempts to speak to the sisters since the photo was spotted have failed, according to AD, with one telling the paper: “I don’t know what information you want from me and I don’t know what painting you are talking about.”

Lawyers for Goudstikker’s estate said they would make every effort to reclaim the painting.

“My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection, and to restore his legacy,” von Saher said.