Stolen nazi loot: painting recovered in Argentina after decades
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Journalists in the Netherlands traced a painting stolen during World War II to a home in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
The artwork, titled Portrait of a Lady, once belonged to a Jewish art dealer persecuted by the Nazis, who reportedly had around 500 works of art stolen from him. A Dutch newspaper discovered an image of the painting in a real estate advertisement for a large house in the Parque Luro neighborhood of Mar del Plata.
The investigation revealed that Friedrich Katjen, a Nazi who fled Europe in 1944, lived in Argentina under his own name and his daughter possessed the painting. After public reporting of the painting’s presence, the family attempted to hide it, but authorities found it during multiple searches. A legal dispute followed, during which the current holders of the painting argued the claim had expired.
However, a court ultimately ordered the painting’s return to the descendants of the art dealer murdered in the Holocaust. Investigators are now searching for other paintings that may have been located on the same property, continuing the effort to recover stolen art.
