Prosecutors in Argentina on Thursday charged a couple with aggravated cover up for hiding a painting that was looted by the Nazis during World War II, said Carlos Martínez, the federal prosecutor in the coastal town of Mar del Plata.
Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of a Nazi who escaped to Argentina after the war, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, could face up to six years in prison, Mr. Martínez said.
“The crimes that were being covered up are especially serious,” Mr. Martínez told journalists after a court hearing on Thursday in Mar del Plata. “They are linked to crimes of genocide, to theft in the context of genocide.”
Ms. Kadgien and her husband had handed the artwork, which dated to the early 18th century and belonged to a Jewish art dealer during World War II, to the Argentine authorities on Wednesday, more than eight decades after it was taken.
The painting, by the Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, had long been on international and Dutch lists of missing works. It had not been seen since 1945 — until last month, when journalists from a Dutch newspaper spotted it on a real estate listing on an Argentine website.
The painting had belonged to the Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. In 1940, the Nazis forced Mr. Goudstikker to sell his gallery, and the painting ultimately ended up in the hands of Friedrich Kadgien, a high-ranking Nazi official.
After the journalists spotted it online, prosecutors and Interpol tried to locate the painting, which they believed was hanging above a couch in the home of Ms. Kadgien, Mr. Kadgien’s daughter. But when prosecutors raided Ms. Kadgien’s house, as well as three other properties owned by the family, they could not find it, Mr. Martínez said.
Ms. Kadgien and her husband, Mr. Cortegoso, were then placed under house arrest, Mr. Martínez said, because they had obstructed the investigation by removing the painting from their home. On Thursday, a judge lifted their house arrest but took their passports to prevent them from leaving the country.
Mr. Goudstikker’s descendants have made a claim for the painting, said Yael Weitz, their lawyer.
“I remain committed to reclaiming the painting and having it returned to my family,” Marei von Saher, Mr. Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is what is just and fair.”
It’s possible there are other looted works in the properties owned by the Kadgien family, prosecutors said earlier. Two paintings from around 1840 had been seized from a house belonging to another of Mr. Kadgien’s daughters, Mr. Martínez said.
And last month, inspired by the journalists’ find, a researcher at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands identified a 17th century still life that had also been missing since World War II from pictures of the Kadgien family posted on Facebook.
Mr. Martínez said that he was not surprised that Ms. Kadgien handed over the painting. “Perhaps at first they wanted to keep ownership of the painting,” he said. But after all the attention and deployment by official agencies, he added, “they understood that the best situation was to hand it over.”
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
The post Argentine Authorities Charge Couple With Hiding Nazi-Looted Painting appeared first on New York Times.
