The discovery was made when the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) sent a reporter to Argentina to try to interview a notorious Nazi's daughters about the stolen paintings he is believed to have taken with him to South America. The sisters did not respond when the journalist rang the doorbell, but he reported back that he had seen that the house south of Buenos Aires was for sale.
In the editorial office in Amsterdam, one looked at the housing ad for traces of the SS man Friedrich Kadgien and his paintings.
When I opened the link to the housing ad, I started looking for clues in the pictures. Was there anything there that could reveal something about Kadgien's past? says journalist Cyril Rosman.
Then I saw it. The painting above the sofa in picture five.
Sold to Göring
"Portrait of a woman", painted by the Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi in the late 1730s, was plundered from the Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker and sold for a pittance along with around 780 other works of art to the Nazis' Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, but was until now considered lost.
According to AD, art historians say that the painting in the picture appears to be very similar to the missing work of art. Dimensions and colors match photographs of the work, but experts warn, according to The Guardian, that they must see the painting with their own eyes to be able to determine its authenticity.
The Dutch authorities for cultural heritage state at the same time that they have also discovered the other painting that Kadgien is believed to have taken with him, a still life by the 17th-century artist Abraham Mignon. They found it in a picture on one of Kadgien's daughters' social media.
Hitler's advisor
The daughters have so far refused to talk to AD, more than a brief dismissal from one of them:
I do not know what you want from me, and I do not know which painting you are talking about.
Jacques Goudstikker's daughter-in-law tells AD that she will now try to recover the painting through the court - a legal battle that can last for several years.
Friedrich Kadgien was an economic advisor to both Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring and managed to escape justice to Switzerland before the end of the war. From there, he went to Brazil and later to Argentina, where he, according to The Times, acted as an intermediary for German companies that traded with Latin American dictatorships. He died in 1978.
