The family of a Nazi official who stole a painting that belonged to a Jewish art dealer during World War II handed the artwork to the Argentine authorities on Wednesday, more than eight decades after it was taken.
“The family’s lawyer brought it; he showed up at the prosecutor’s office and said he wanted to hand over the painting we were looking for, and nothing else,” said Carlos Martínez, the federal prosecutor in the coastal town of Mar del Plata.
The painting, an early 18th-century work by the Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, had not been seen from 1945 until last month, when journalists from a Dutch newspaper spotted it on a real estate listing on an Argentine website. It had long been on international and Dutch lists of missing works.
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 Patricia 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, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, had been placed on house arrest before the painting was returned, Mr. Martínez said, because they had obstructed the investigation by removing the painting from their home.
The couple were expected to attend a hearing on Thursday and could face charges. “What we are investigating is whether these people committed any crime, at least of concealment, by having this work,” Mr. Martínez said.
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. It is what is just and fair,” Marei von Saher, Mr. Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law, said in a statement on Wednesday.
It’s possible there are other looted works in the properties owned by the Kadgien family. Prosecutors seized two paintings from around 1840 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 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.
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