Detention in Argentina for the daughter of a fugitive Nazi officer who stole an 18th-century painting from Jews

Argentine prosecutors announced today that the daughter of a fugitive Nazi officer who stole an 18th-century Italian painting from a Jewish collector during World War II is under house arrest along with her husband.

This was decided after searches last night in houses in the city of Mar del Plata linked to Patricia Cadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortez.

Patricia Kadigen is one of the daughters of Friedrich Kadigen, a financial advisor to Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man, and an art lover who stole famous paintings through forced sales of Jewish-owned galleries in Nazi-occupied Europe. Kadigen fled to Argentina after World War II and died in Buenos Aires in 1978.

The Baroque "Portrait of a Lady" by Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi (1655-1743) was missing for 80 years until it surfaced last month in an estate sale ad, showing the painting on the wall above the couch in Patricia Kadgien's living room.

Experts from the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency have determined that it is a portrait by Ghislandi of Countess Colleoni from the 18th century.

The portrait is in international and Dutch databases of works stolen by the Nazis, and is one of more than 1.000 works that Goering stole from the prominent Jewish-Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstiker.

The missing painting was discovered by journalists from the Dutch newspaper Algemene Dagblad last month, delighting historians and Goudstiker's heirs who have been trying for decades to recover his stolen works.

But when it was announced that the painting had been found, it suddenly disappeared again.

Argentine police entered the Kadgien home last Tuesday and found a horse tapestry above the couch in the same spot where the stolen painting in the online photo was.

Police searched that house again late last night and two other houses and an apartment in Mar del Plata belonging to the Kadgien family for additional clues about the painting's whereabouts, federal prosecutors said today.

They seized various prints and engravings and two paintings from Sister Kadgien's house, which experts said could date to the 1800s, but they did not find "Portrait of a Lady."

The prosecutor in charge of the search, Carlos Martinez, told the AP that he had accused the couple of obstructing the investigation and ordered them under house arrest for at least 72 hours pending a hearing.

Martinez said the Kadgien family's defense attorneys have offered to turn over the painting, but have not yet done so.