Nazi-looted artwork vanishes in Argentina, police launch investigation

An Italian artist’s masterpiece that the Nazis looted during World War II vanished again, this time from Argentina.

According to Sky News, Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi, which was believed to have resurfaced for the first time in 80 years in an Argentinian estate agent’s advert, has vanished.

The portrait, which was sold by the daughter of a senior Nazi who escaped Germany post-WWII, was spotted hanging above a sofa in the for-sale notice of the house in Mar del Plata, near Buenos Aires.

However, after the Argentina police raided the house earlier this week after an alert by Dutch journalists, they did not find any painting but seized two weapons.

Argentinian daily Clarin reported that a federal prosecutor, Carlos Martínez, told local media that the authorities believe that case might involve a smuggling cover-up.

Peter Schouten of the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, which first reported the reappearance of the artwork, reported that there was evidence “the painting was removed shortly afterwards or after the media reports about it appeared.”

“There’s now a large rug with horses and some nature scenes hanging there, which police say looks like something else used to hang there,” he added.

Notably, the painting that was once part of Jacques Goudstikker’s art collection in Amsterdam was looted by the Nazis during WWII. Some of the art pieces were recovered and displayed in Amsterdam’s national collection, whereas the Portrait of a Lady remained missing until a recent discovery.