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28th August 2025
12:07pm BST
A portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi was spotted hanging above a sofa inside a property near Buenos Aires, which was being sold by the daughter of a senior Nazi who fled Germany after WWII.
However, when the police raided the property, there was no painting to be found, yet two weapons were seized, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez told local media, per the BBC.
Mr Martínez goes on to say that they are treating the incident as an alleged cover-up of smuggling, as reported by the Argentinian news outlet Clarín.
The newspaper reported that the furniture had been rearranged, and more importantly, that the picture was missing from the wall when they raided the property.
Peter Schouten, who writes for the Dutch outlet Algemeen Dagblad, which first reported the artwork's reappearance, claimed there was evidence "the painting was removed shortly afterwards or after the media reports about it appeared," per the BBC.
"There's now a large rug with horses and some nature scenes hanging there, which police say looks like something else used to hang there".
The now highly sought-after Portrait of a Lady was part of Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker's collection, much of which was forcibly sold by the Nazis after his death.
It was reported that some of the works were recovered in Germany after the war and eventually displayed in Amsterdam as part of the Dutch national collection.
Italian portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi's painting of the Contessa Colleoni's whereabouts has been unknown for over 80 years.
AD's investigation revealed wartime documents that suggest the painting was in the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, who was an SS officer and senior financial aide to Hermann Göring, who fled in 1945 before eventually moving to Argentina, where he eventually became a successful businessman.
Kadgien died in 1979, but a US file seen by AD included the line: "Appears to possess substantial assets, could still be of value to us," per the BBC.
The Dutch newspaper added that it had made several attempts to get into contact with Kadgien's daughters, however, it was only when one of the daughters put the house up for sale that they spotted the missing works.
Apart from the Portrait of a Lady, another looted artwork was spotted, a floral still-life by the 17th-century Dutch painter Abraham Mignon, which made an appearance on one of the sisters' social media.
One of the sisters told the Dutch paper that she didn't know what they wanted from her or what painting they "are talking about".
Lawyers for Goudstikker's estate claim they would make every effort to reclaim the painting.
Daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's sole-surviving heir, said her family "aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques' collection, and to restore his legacy."
