How an 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis was recovered 80 years later in Argentina

Painting was spotted online by Dutch journalists when the daughter of a former Nazi official put her house up for sale in Mar del Plata

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here was nothing very remarkable about the middle-aged couple who lived in the low, stone-clad villa on calle Padre Cardiel, a quiet residential street in the leafy Parque Luro district of Argentina’s best-known seaside town, Mar del Plata.

Patricia Kadgien, 58, was born in Buenos Aires, five hours to the north. Her social media described her as a yoga teacher and practitioner of biodecoding, an obscure alternative therapy that claims to cure illness by resolving past traumas.

Her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, 61, built and raced go-karts. Like many in this neighbourhood, the couple were comfortably off, and discreet. “Patri was an excellent person”, one neighbour said. “Nice, well educated,” said another.