Giuseppe Ghislandi, “Portrait of a Lady” (image courtesy the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands)Authorities in Argentina have reportedly placed the daughter of a former Nazi official and her spouse under house arrest after a painting seized by the Nazis during World War II inexplicably disappeared from their living room wall.Police raided the couple’s home in the coastal city of Mar del Plata last week after the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad spotted the missing 18th-century artwork “Portrait of a Lady” by Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi hanging above their sofa in an online real estate listing that has since been removed. The painting previously belonged to the Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose collection of more than 1,100 artworks was looted by the Nazis shortly after his death while fleeing the Netherlands in 1940.During their search, authorities failed to locate the looted canvas, instead finding a tapestry hanging in its place, Argentine newspaper La Nación reported.Now, a federal court has ordered Patricia Kadgien, daughter of the Nazi aide Friedrich Kadgien, and her spouse to be placed under house arrest for 72 hours on police accusations that they have obstructed a police investigation. A judicial official told Reuters that the couple will be summoned for questioning this week, and are expected to be charged with “concealment of theft in the context of genocide.” The outlet also reported that during four more searches at homes linked to the couple and their immediate family yesterday, investigators uncovered two other paintings presumed to date back to the 1800s.The couple has admitted in a court document to possessing the artwork, which they claim as part of their estate, La Nación reported. The Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), which has reportedly lodged a complaint against the couple, described this filing as a tactic to prolong the restitution of the painting.“This maneuver, rather than confronting the documented history of looting, appears designed to stall restitution and shield Kadgien’s heirs from accountability, perpetuating the very injustices that allowed Nazi plunder during World War II to remain in circulation in private hands,” ARCA stated.Police outside the house that was raided after a photo showing a 17th-century painting allegedly stolen by the Nazis appeared in a real estate listing, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on August 27, 2025 (photo by Mara Sosti/AFP via Getty Images)The search for the lost painting draws attention back to a dark chapter in Argentina’s history, when scores of fugitive Nazi war criminals were allowed into the country during the government of General Juan Perón. While escaping across the Atlantic, many Nazis brought with them artworks and cultural property that they had stolen from Jewish communities during World War II, which has led to a painfully slow restitution process that continues to this day.“My search for the artworks owned by my father-in-law Jacques Goudstikker started at the end of the ’90s, and I won’t give up,” Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, the sole heir to his collection, told Algemeen Dagblad.“My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection and restore his legacy,” von Saher told the newspaper. The Goudstikker Art Research Project, which aims to recuperate the Dutch art dealer’s collection, has so far recuperated hundreds of works, including more than 200 paintings from the Dutch government in 2006 and two life-size Renaissance paintings worth $24 million in 2023.Hyperallergic has reached out to von Saher’s legal representatives for comment.Annelies Kool and Perry Schrier, researchers at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), told Hyperallergic in a statement last week that it is “disappointing” that the work has still not been recovered. The painting is listed alongside more than 17,000 other works in RCE’s database of cultural property looted by German Nazis during World War II. “After all,” said Kool and Schrier, “the purpose of our work is to bring looted heritage from the Second World War to light and, where possible, return it to the rightful owners.”