BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
AP
—
Argentine police continued their hunt Wednesday for a 18th-century Italian portrait believed to have been looted 80 years in the past from a Jewish collector by a fugitive Nazi officer who settled in Argentina after World War II.
A raid on a villa Tuesday in a seaside resort south of Buenos Aires reopened a shadowy chapter in the historical past of this South American nation, which sheltered scores of Nazis who fled Europe to keep away from prosecution for warfare crimes, together with high-ranking get together members and infamous architects of the Holocaust like Adolf Eichmann.
Under the federal government of Argentine General Juan Perón, whose first tenure lasted from 1946 till his overthrow in 1955, fugitive German fascists introduced plundered Jewish property with them, together with gold, financial institution deposits, work, sculptures and furnishings.
The destiny of these gadgets continues to make information because the painful means of restitution drags alongside in Argentina and past.
In this case, the painting that Argentine authorities are after is “Portrait of a Lady,” by Italian Baroque artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi.
Reporters for the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad spotted what gave the impression to be the well-known painting this month in a actual property ad for a house believed to be owned by the descendants of Nazi fugitive Friedrich Kadgien whereas looking for stolen art work from the Netherlands.
Citing Dutch artwork specialists, the Rotterdam-based paper reported that the unique “Portrait of a Lady” gave the impression to be hanging above a velvet couch in the lounge of a chalet for sale in Argentina’s coastal city of Mar del Plata. The paper printed pictures displaying the painting in a 3D tour of the inside.
“Although we have not physically examined the painting and cannot verify the back of the canvas (for marks or labels that could help confirm its provenance), it is reasonably likely that this is indeed the 18th-century portrait of Countess Colleoni by Ghislandi,” Annelies Kool and Perry Schrier, researchers from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, advised The Associated Press.
The actual property company, Robles Casas & Campos, didn’t reply to a request for remark. The $265,000 home itemizing was not stay as of Wednesday.
Archived display grabs of the commercial present the painting stopped showing among the many property photos after the Dutch story’s publication on Monday.
Police on Tuesday raided the home, stated federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez, however the painting was not discovered.
Officers seized different gadgets that may very well be helpful for the investigation, together with firearms, engravings, prints and interval reproductions, he stated, including that investigators have been inspecting doable prices of concealment and smuggling.
The Netherlands’ Cultural Heritage Agency expressed disappointment that Argentine authorities had not positioned the painting.
“After all, the purpose of our work is to bring looted heritage from the Second World War to light and, where possible, return it to the rightful owners,” it stated in a assertion Wednesday.
The official Dutch database of lacking WWII artwork, maintained by the Cultural Heritage Agency, identifies the oil-on-canvas “Portrait of a Lady” as belonging to Dutch Jewish artwork vendor Jacques Goudstikker earlier than the Nazi takeover of his distinguished Amsterdam gallery as Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940.
Through outright looting or coercive gross sales, brokers appearing on behalf of the Nazis made off with numerous artworks from personal Dutch-Jewish sellers. An estimated 1,100 works in Goudstikker’s stock have been offered illegally to Hermann Goering, often known as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.
Goudstikker’s sole surviving inheritor, 81-year-old Marei von Saher, has lengthy pursued restitution for her father-in-law’s stolen works. In a landmark 2006 case, the Dutch authorities agreed to return 202 looted work from Goudstikker’s assortment to von Saher after a protracted authorized battle.
The attorneys for von Saher advised the AP on Wednesday that she is “extremely grateful” for the newspaper’s work in finding the painting and is “exploring all possibilities” to get well it.
While the household can’t authenticate the art work with out inspecting it in individual, Amelia Keuning, one of many attorneys, stated photos from the actual property itemizing and different particulars made them “fairly certain it is the same painting.”
“It is about restoring justice,” stated Yaél M. Weitz, von Saher’s different lawyer.
The Dutch archive lists “Portrait of a Lady” as having handed into the palms of a man named Kadgien from Berlin.
A search of the German Federal Archives data the existence of just one Nazi get together member with that surname: Friedrich Gustav Kadgien, membership No. 1,354,543, who oversaw international forex, treasured metals and the sale of confiscated property as a monetary aide to Goering.
Following the German defeat, Kadgien fled to Switzerland, then Argentina, in keeping with a declassified report from the Central Intelligence Agency. Members of the Kadgien household and their enterprise dealings present up repeatedly in Argentine judicial and property registries starting in the Fifties.
Kadgien was by no means charged with crimes associated to the Nazi regime throughout a long time in Argentina. He died in 1978 in Buenos Aires, in keeping with native media studies.