Where is “Portrait of a Lady,” a 17th-century work by the Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi that was looted by the Nazis in World War II?
For a brief moment this week, the answer to that 80-year-old question seemed clear: in a living room in a coastal city in Argentina.
Journalists at the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad found the painting while scrolling through an online real-estate listing, which showed it hanging above a green couch in a living room. The listing has since been taken down.
The house belonged to one of the daughters of Friedrich Kadgien, a high-ranking Nazi official who stole the painting.
The painting, which belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a well-known Dutch-Jewish art dealer, had long been on international and Dutch lists of missing works.
On Tuesday, local prosecutors entered the house in Mar del Plata while Patricia Kadgien, one of Mr. Kadgien’s daughters, was at home.
But the painting wasn’t there, said Carlos Martínez, a federal prosecutor who is in charge of the investigation.
Prosecutors seized some folders from the house, as well as prints that they believed date from the 1940s. There could be other items in the house that were stolen, Mr. Martínez said.
Mr. Goudstikker had a small black notebook in which he cataloged his inventory of about 1,400 artworks. He took it with him when he fled the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1940 with his wife and his son on a cargo ship bound for England.
Mr. Goudstikker died in an accident on the ship. But his widow saved the notebook, which has since served as a key piece of evidence in a legal battle to reclaim the artworks that were taken from his family.
The Nazis looted Mr. Goudstikker’s artworks through a forced sale of his gallery to Hermann Göring — one of the most powerful members of the Nazi party — and his banker, Alois Miedl.
After World War II, Mr. Kadgien, a financial adviser to Mr. Göring, left Germany for Switzerland. From there, in a journey shrouded in mystery, he was able to leave Europe and settle in Argentina.
“The big question we have,” said Cyril Rosman, one of the reporters who found the painting, “is what the daughters know about this painting. Do they know the history? Why would you give the painting such a prominent place if you know it’s been looted?”
Mr. Rosman said he had been looking into Mr. Kadgien’s past when his colleague in Argentina became aware of the listing.
Mr. Kadgien’s daughters could not immediately be reached.
Mr. Rosman’s find this week excited art experts, historians and Mr. Goudstikker’s heirs. Yael Weitz, the heirs’ lawyer, said on Wednesday that she had made a legal claim on behalf of the family to get the painting back.
“My first thought was that I am sure there are a lot of these around the world,” said Charlène von Saher, Mr. Goudstikker’s granddaughter, in an interview on Tuesday. “These works have survived already hundreds of years and may survive another few hundreds and not be returned to the rightful owners.”
Before the picture on the real estate website, the painting had not been seen in color images, only in an old black-and-white photo.
“In the 20 years that we’ve been doing this work, we’ve never experienced this, that a painting emerges like this,” said Perry Schrier, a researcher at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, a government-run organization.
After the find, Annelies Kool, another researcher at the agency, said she was inspired to keep looking online in case pictures posted by the sisters revealed any other missing works of art — and she discovered that they did.
Through a search on Facebook through some “family snapshots,” Ms. Kool said she found what she believes is another 17th-century painting that has been missing since World War II: a still life by the painter Abraham Mignon that had also been taken by Mr. Kadgien. (That painting, though, did not belong to Mr. Goudstikker.)
It’s likely that both artworks have been in the family since the end of World War II, Ms. Kool said.
Daniel Politi contributed reporting from Buenos Aires.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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