The China Mail - Two held as Argentina hunts for Nazi-looted painting

The painting, believed to be "Portrait of a Lady" by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi (1655-1743), was recognized by the Dutch newspaper AD in a photo of a house for sale in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata.

The authenticity of the artwork cannot be confirmed until it is recovered, but it is believed to have been stolen from Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during World War II.

Goudstikker died while fleeing the Netherlands in 1940 when it was invaded by Nazi Germany, and his abandoned art collection was looted.

The for-sale notice revealed what is believed to be the Ghislandi painting in the house of Friedrich Kadgien, a financial adviser to Adolf Hitler and placed in charge of moving Nazi plunder to South America.

Kadgien died in 1978 in Argentina, where he had fled along with other Nazi war criminals.

The painting disappeared shortly after the AD article was published.

Interpol and the Argentine federal police are involved in the search for the artwork.

A daughter of Kadgien was placed under house arrest along with her husband for three days, the prosecutor in the case said Tuesday.

They will then appear in court to be charged in the painting's disappearance.

According to Argentina's La Nacion newspaper, the couple insisted they are the rightful owners of the artwork, which they had inherited.

Goudstikker's heirs are determined to recover the painting, which is listed on an international registry of missing artworks.

The lawyer for Kadgien's daughter, Carlos Murias, told La Capital, a local newspaper in Mar del Plata, that the pair would cooperate with the authorities, through prosecutors said Tuesday the artwork has not been handed over.

Four property searches conducted Monday also failed to yield the painting.

The prosecutor's office said investigators carrying out the search had seized two other artworks from the home of another Kadgien daughter that appeared to be from the 1800s.

"The works will be analyzed to determine if they are linked to paintings stolen during World War II," it added.

Goudstikker, a leading dealer of Italian and Dutch 16th- and 17th-century masters, left behind an extensive art collection of over 1,000 paintings when he fled.

Top German officials, led by Gestapo founder Hermann Goering, divvied up his collection.

After the war, the Dutch state retrieved some 300 works, most of which were returned to Goudstikker's heirs.

In 2011, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles returned a 17th century Dutch painting from Goudstikker's collection.

Many other works remain scattered around the globe.

Y.Parker--ThChM