Argentina court orders return of Nazi-looted Old Master portrait to Jewish dealer’s heir

An Argentine federal court has ordered the restitution of a Nazi-looted Old Master painting, Portrait of a Lady, to Marei von Saher, heir to Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The 18th-century portrait by Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (previously attributed to Giuseppe Ghislandi), valued at around €250,000, was found in 2025 in photos from an Argentine real-estate listing and had been held for decades by the family of Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, who later settled in Mar del Plata. On 4 September, judge Santiago Inchausti approved an agreement suspending criminal proceedings against Patricia Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso, who relinquished all claims to the work as a condition of avoiding trial. Lawyers for von Saher said the case is virtually unprecedented because restitution was achieved from private hands through criminal proceedings rather than via a state or museum settlement.

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