Argentine police are investigating a deceased Nazi’s daughter and son-in-law after a 17th-century painting stolen from a Dutch Jewish art collector was recently spotted in a property ad before promptly disappearing.
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 the country was invaded by Nazi Germany.
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’s right-hand man and an art aficionado who plundered paintings taken from Jewish-owned galleries in Nazi-occupied Europe, according to The Associated Press. Kadgien later fled to Argentina, along with other Nazi war criminals. He died in 1978.
Lost Art Database, German Art Foundation
Interpol and the Argentine federal police are involved in the search for the artwork.
After the article was published, the image was removed from the real estate listing. When Argentine police entered the house last week, they found a tapestry of a horse hanging in the spot the painting had been in the pictures, AP reported. Four property searches conducted Monday — at Kadgien’s home and three other residences linked to the family — failed to yield the artwork, AP said.
Kadgien’s daughter, identified by AP as Patricia Kadgien, has been placed under house arrest along with her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, the prosecutor in the case said Tuesday. They will appear in court to be charged in connection with the painting’s disappearance.
Carlos Murias, a lawyer for Kadgien’s daughter, told a local Mar de Plata newspaper that the pair would cooperate with the authorities, through prosecutors said Tuesday the artwork has not been handed over.
MARA SOSTI/AFP via Getty Images 
Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper reported that the couple said they had inherited the artwork and were its rightful owners.
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,” the office 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.
Goudstikker’s heirs are determined to recover the painting, which is listed on an international registry of missing artworks.