A year after its reappearance, as fortuitous as it was spectacular, the Portrait of a Lady from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker will be able to be returned to its heir. On September 4, an Argentine federal judge approved the agreement concluded between the prosecution, Marei von Saher, daughter-in-law and sole heir of the Dutch merchant, and Patricia Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso, who held the painting in Argentina. The latter gave up “expressly and irrevocably” to any right or recourse in the work. The decision paves the way for it to be handed over to Marei von Saher, who resides in the United States.
The affair had come to light in unusual circumstances that The Arts Journal reported on August 28, 2025. Journalists from the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagbladinvestigating Friedrich Kadgien, a former Nazi official responsible in particular for currencies, precious metals and confiscated goods, had recognized the painting in the photographs of a real estate advertisement. It hung above a sofa in the house put up for sale in Mar del Plata by one of his daughters, Patricia Kadgien. The work had been sought after for eight decades.
When the Argentine federal police searched the villa a few days later, the painting disappeared and a tapestry took its place. Several other homes linked to the family were then searched. Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso finally handed over the work to the courts at the beginning of September 2025. Proceedings were brought against the couple for aggravated concealment and Marei von Saher had taken steps to obtain restitution.
The legal outcome comes exactly one year later. In return for their renunciation, Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso benefit from a suspension of the trial but from probation for twenty-four months. During this period, they will have to respect several obligations imposed by the courts and each pay 2.4 million Argentine pesos (1,500 euros) to the support association of a children’s hospital in Mar del Plata. This is therefore not an acquittal: the criminal proceedings are suspended under conditions.
The investigation will also have modified the very history of the painting. During its rediscovery, as in the first articles of the JdATHE Portrait of a lady was attributed to the Bergamo painter Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, known as Fra Galgario (1655-1743). An expertise ordered by the courts and carried out by the National Academy of Fine Arts of Argentina has since concluded that it is a work by his contemporary Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (1698-1767), known as Il Pitocchetto. Scholars have also authenticated the painting as one that appeared in the archives of the Goudstikker collection. Its value is today estimated at around 250,000 euros.
Before the war, Jacques Goudstikker was one of the main dealers in old paintings in Amsterdam. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, he fled with his wife and son but died accidentally during the crossing to England. His gallery and a collection comprising more than a thousand works were then dispersed for the benefit of Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring. Friedrich Kadgien, Göring’s financial advisor, appears in the archives to have had the Portrait of a Lady in his possession. He left Europe after the war and eventually settled in Argentina. The Goudstikker family has been carrying out restitution proceedings for several decades; in 2006, the Netherlands notably returned 202 paintings to Marei von Saher.
However, the painting should not immediately leave Argentina. The representatives of Marei von Saher indicated to the courts that they wanted him to be able to remain there temporarily in order to be presented to the public before his final surrender. The terms of this presentation remain to be determined.
