A Italian master painting stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam has been spotted on the website of an estate agent selling a house in Argentina, more than 80 years after it was taken.
A photo shows Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi hanging above a sofa inside a property near Buenos Aires once owned by a senior Nazi official who moved to South America after the Second World War.
The painting, which features on a database of lost wartime art, was traced when the house was put up for sale by the official’s daughter, Dutch newspaper AD reports.
The artwork is among hundreds looted from art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who helped other Jews escape during the war.
The problem is the gesture is too ambiguous. If you’re focused on “Netanyahu’s Israel is behaving like Nazis” then the idea of using loot from the last lot of Nazis to support the victims of present-day Nazis looks good. But if you focus on the fact that this painting was stolen by Nazis from its Jewish owner, you might think it should go back to its owner’s descendants. In that light, seizing it again to keep it out of the hands of its rightful Jewish owners looks like adding insult to injury.