Argentine prosecutors on Tuesday placed Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of a fugitive Nazi officer, and her husband under house arrest over a stolen 18th-century Italian painting.
Police conducted raids late Monday on homes linked to Patricia and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.
Patricia Kadgien is the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a financial adviser to Hermann Göring, who looted Jewish-owned art galleries during World War II. Kadgien fled to Argentina after the war and died in Buenos Aires in 1978.
The stolen painting, a Baroque work called Portrait of a Lady by Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi, had been missing for 80 years. It was recently spotted in a real estate listing hanging above a green couch in Kadgien’s living room. The painting had been part of over 1,000 pieces stolen from Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.
When police entered Kadgien’s house last week, the painting was gone and replaced by a tapestry. Additional raids on Monday seized several prints and two paintings possibly from the 1800s, but the stolen artwork was not found.
Prosecutor Carlos Martínez said the couple obstructed the investigation, leading to their home detention for at least 72 hours. He added that the Kadgien family had offered to return the painting but has not done so yet.