Argentina Orders Return of Nazi-Looted Painting Found in Real Estate Listing

An Argentine court has approved the return of an 18th-century painting stolen by the Nazis to the heir of its original owner, ending an investigation that began when the artwork surfaced in a real estate listing. Portrait of a Lady, by Italian baroque painter Giuseppe Ghislandi, had been missing for eight decades since it was looted from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker's collection after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.

Investigators traced the painting to the home of the daughter of a senior Nazi officer who had fled to Argentina after World War II, after it appeared in the background of a real estate advertisement photo. Under the settlement approved by the Buenos Aires court, the woman and her husband gave up all claims to the painting and agreed to donate roughly 4.8 million pesos (about $3,200) to local hospitals rather than face trial. The painting will go to Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's daughter-in-law and sole heir, who plans to exhibit it in Buenos Aires for at least a year to help tell her father-in-law's story.