This is the daughter of a fugitive Nazi who took a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer – before the disappearance of the work sparked a days-long police hunt and global intrigue.
The happy family photos, revealed by the Daily Mail, show Patricia Kadgien, 59, drinking wine and posing with her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 61, in front of their home in the resort city of Mar del Plata, Argentina.
In another image the couple are seen at an ‘Octubrefest’ event in the town of Bariloche, which became notorious as a place of refuge for Nazi war criminals.
Ms Kadgien is the elder daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, who helped plunder the stolen assets of Jewish Holocaust victims as an aide to the monstrous Hermann Goering, and then fled to Argentina after the Second World War.
Ms Kadgien and her husband were put under house arrest this week after the 18th century work Portrait of a Lady – by Italian Baroque painter Giuseppe Ghislandi (also known as Fra Galgario) – went missing from their home.
Police went to seize the stolen work last month after it was spotted in an estate agent’s photos of the home, but when officers arrived it had been replaced with a tapestry depicting horses.
The disappearance sparked worldwide media interest and led to police seizing two other paintings during raids on other properties owned by Ms Kadgien and her family.
Last night, Portrait of a Lady was finally recovered by Argentine authorities and then paraded to the media – the first time it had been seen since being seized from Amsterdam dealer Jacques Goudstikker more than 80 years ago.
This is the daughter of a fugitive Nazi who took a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer. Above: Patricia Kadgien, now 59, poses with a glass of wine in 2014 in an image unearthed by the Daily Mail
Portrait of a Lady on display in the home of Patricia Kadgien in an image that featured in a real estate listing. The property in Mar del Plata was raided by police
Showing off the piece, which depicts Italian noblewoman Countess Colleoni, art expert Ariel Bassano told reporters it was ‘in good condition for its age, as it dates from 1710.’
He was quoted by the local La Capital Mar del Plata newspaper as valuing it at ‘around $50,000.’
Federal prosecutor Daniel Adler said in the press conference: ‘We’re doing this simply so that the community to whom we partly owe the discovery of the work… can see these images.
‘It was people from the community, specifically journalists, who prompted the investigation.’
Ms Kadgien’s family photos were posted on social media.
The image of Ms Kadgien and her husband in Bariloche, which lies in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes around 1,000 miles from Mar del Plata, was posted in November 2017.
Mr Cortegoso wrote in Spanish next to the image: ‘Today marks thirty-five years since I lived happily with my love.’
The couple have grown up children together.
Bariloche became the refuge of SS war criminal Erich Priebke, who commanded the unit responsible for the massacre of more than 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
Priebke ran a delicatessen in Bariloche, where he lived for more than 40 years until his arrest in the 1990s.
Bariloche was also the home of SS officer Reinhard Kopps.
Portrait of a Lady was recognized last week by the Dutch newspaper AD in photographs of Ms Kadgien’s house that were part of a listing on the website of estate agent Robles Casas & Campos.
It was hanging above a green sofa in the living room of the property.
The painting was among more than 1,000 works stolen from Goudstikker’s collection after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.
Its discovery generated a flurry of excitement on both sides of the Atlantic.
Friedrich Kadgien, a key aide to monstrous Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, fled to the country after the Second World War and died there in 1978. Above: Kadgien in Brail 1954 with Antoinette Imfeld, the wife of Swiss lawyer Ernst Imfeld. The lawyer helped Kadgien flee from Switzerland to South America
Patricia Kadgien, 59, is seen in 2015 with her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 61, outside their home in the resort city of Mar del Plata, Argentina
Patricia Kadgien swigs from a bottle of wine in 2014. The image was posted on social media
Patricia Kadgien with her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, at an ‘Octubrefest’ event in the town of Bariloche, which became notorious as a place of refuge for Nazi war criminals. The photo was taken in 2017 on the 35th anniversary of the couple’s relationship
Last night, Portrait of a Lady was finally recovered by Argentine authorities and then paraded to the media – the first time it had been seen since being seized from Amsterdam dealer Jacques Goudstikker more than 80 years ago. Above: Portrait of a Lady, behind art expert Ariel Bassano as he speaks to the media
But no sooner had it been identified than it disappeared again.
When Argentine police went to raid the premises after being tipped off about the property ad they found no trace of the artwork.
Kadgien and her husband were placed under house arrest on Tuesday after several failed police searches for the portrait.
According to Argentine daily La Nacion, the couple admitted in a court filing that they owned the artwork and said they believed any lawsuit over its ownership would fall under the statute of limitations.
Their lawyer, Carlos Murias, said that prosecutors were seeking to charge his clients with ‘concealing smuggling.’
If framed within the context of the genocide of Jews during the war, the crime would not be bound by the statute of limitations.
News of the discovery of Portrait of a Lady reached the only surviving heir of Goudstikker.
His daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, 81, has devoted more than 25 years to recovering his works.
The horse tapestry that was found on the wall in the place of Portrait of a Lady when police raided Ms Kadgien’s home last week
Some of the documents that were seized in the initial raid on the home
Investigators searching Ms Kadgien’s home last week
A member of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) stands outside Ms Kadgien’s home last week
She said last week that she would not ‘give up’ in her aim to ‘bring back every single artwork’.
Goudstikker died in 1940 aged just 42 after falling into the hold of a ship and breaking his neck while fleeing the Nazis for England, where he was buried.
Kadgien was one of thousands of Nazis who found refuge in South America – in particular under the regime of Juan Peron in Argentina – after the war.
Among the most notorious were war criminals Adolf Eichmann – the chief architect of the Holocaust – and Auschwitz death camp doctor Josef Mengele.
Kadgien, who was born in Elberfeld, western Germany, in 1907, became a member of the Nazi party in late 1932, just weeks before Adolf Hitler was elected leader of Germany.
As the 1930s progressed and the Nazis’ grip on power tightened, so did Kadgien’s career.
The currency expert joined the feared SS in 1935, and by 1938 had become a key aide to Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Goering.
Although Goering is perhaps best known as the drug-addled chief of the German air force, he was also – as ‘commissioner for the four-year plan’ – charged with growing the Nazi war economy.
Kadgien (left) once served as a financial advisor to top Nazi Herman Goering (right)
Jacques Goudstikker (pictured) was a successful art dealer in Amsterdam who helped his fellow Jews flee the Nazis before he died at sea while trying to escape to Britain aboard a cargo ship
According to the 2002 expert report of the Swiss Bergier Commission, titled ‘Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War’, Kadgien became ‘heavily involved in criminal methods for acquiring currency, securities and diamonds stolen from Jewish victims’.
Among Kadgien’s financial schemes was allegedly the sale of weapons to the Brazilian military junta.
He fled to South America via Switzerland after being described by an American interrogator as a ‘snake of the lowest sort’.
The Nazi died in 1978, after having Ms Kadgien and her sister with his second wife.
In their initial search of Ms Kadgien’s home last week, officers seized mobile phones and two unregistered firearms as well as drawings, engravings and documents from the 1940s that could advance the investigation.
During further raids on the homes of several of Ms Kadgien’s relatives, officers found two paintings from the 19th century.
The art pieces will be analyzed to determine if they were also looted by the Nazis.
