Sadly, victims of art theft are often left without recourse because they simply cannot locate their stolen property. However, sometimes luck has other plans.
Stolen Art in a Children’s Movie
Artworks reemerge in the most unlikely places. For example, a stolen artwork once made its big screen debut in a children’s movie. When art expert Gergely Barki was watching the 1999 animated film “Stuart Little” on Christmas 2009, he immediately recognized a painting hanging on the film set wall as “Sleeping Lady With Black Vase,” a work painted by Robert Bereny. The famous work was missing for decades.
The painting was last seen publicly in 1928 at an exhibition at the Ernst Museum in Budapest, Hungary. Art historians are unable to piece together its provenance and determine where it went after its museum display. However, due to instability across Europe during WWII, including the rampant theft of art, the work’s disappearance could have been the result of conflict.
Photograph of Sleeping Woman with a Black Vase, as depicted in the blog post of Nicole Waldner.
It eventually made its way to the United States, where a set designer for “Stuart Little” purchased the painting in a Pasadena, California antique shop for $500. The set designer had no idea of the work’s importance. But expert Barki recognized it from a black-and-white photograph. Barki met the designer, examined the work, and confirmed its authenticity. Ultimately, the set designer sold the work to a collector, who then sold it at auction to an unidentified Hungarian collector for $285,700. Due to the publicity surrounding its serendipitous rediscovery, the work may be the most widely known Hungarian painting.
A Hidden Cache of Enormous Proportions
A more shocking stolen art discovery was announced in November 2013. It was revealed that a cache of stolen art was found in the possession of a reclusive octogenarian named Cornelius Gurlitt. The collection included over 1400 works, valued at over $1.3 billion. So how did the quiet loner acquire those works? Investigators became suspicious of the man’s activities after he was discovered on a train carrying a large sum of cash. Eventually, authorities learned that he was the son of a former art museum director who was recruited (or potentially forced) to work as an art advisor for the Nazi Party. However, rather than serving the party and turn over seized works, the elder Gurlitt helped himself to art, hiding the works and then representing himself as a victim after the fall of the Nazi Party. He then secretly passed along the art to his family.
After the art stash was discovered, Cornelius Gurlitt fought to maintain ownership and possession over the works. The battle did not last long because Gurlitt passed away within a year. Upon his death, he bequeathed his collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland. The museum eventually accepted the gift, but it made provisions for the equitable restitution of looted works to heirs of the rightful owners. (More information can be found HERE.) Most of the works are still in the Swiss museum.
Looted Art Featured in a Real Estate Listing
In late August 2025, in a story that captured the imaginations (and indignations) of people around the world, another piece of looted art was discovered. This time, the discovery was made when someone spotted an image of Giuseppe Ghislandi’s “Portrait of a Lady” in a real estate listing for a property in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Image published in the August 27, 2025 edition of MercoPress.
The painting was owned by Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch-Jewish art dealer, whose art inventory had been targeted and looted by Nazis. Luckily for Goudstikker’s heirs, there is a record of his collection. When the dealer fled the Netherlands, he had a list of approximately 1400 named works in a small black notebook.
During the Nazi Party’s extensive looting across Europe, it targeted Goudstikker’s collection through a forced sale of his gallery. One of the liquidators was Hermann Göring (a Nazi infamous for stealing art across Europe, as well as committing other deplorable acts). After the war, Friedrich Kadgien (an adviser to Hermann Goring) moved from Germany to Switzerland, and then eventually fled to Argentina. There, it’s no surprise that a stolen painting appeared in the house of Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of Friedrich Kadgien.
Social Media, Stolen Art, and Legal Action
So how was the painting discovered? A journalist was researching the past of Mr. Kadgien when he became aware of the real estate listing that included an image of a stolen painting. Once the news broke about the piece, international attention focused on the Kadgiens. Prosecutors entered the home to seize the work, but it had disappeared. Ultimately, the Kadgiens’ lawyer handed over the artwork to the authorities. However, in the meantime, the attention led to other discoveries involving the family’s collection.
Investigators examined whether other stolen works were in the Kadgiens’ possession. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, a government-run organization, discovered other missing artworks with the family. By examining family photos on Facebook, a researcher discovered another 17th century painting missing since WWII.
Were the heirs of Friedrich Kadgien aware of the looted past of some of their property? If so, why was “Portrait of a Lady” so brazenly displayed online? Do current possessors mistakenly believe that the original owners and their heirs have forgotten about their treasured collections or have given up the battle for restitution? Or was Ms. Kadgien simply unaware of the issues with the work?
The Goudstikker heirs hired Yael Weitz to file a legal claim to recover the painting. Luckily, the family has successfully recovered numerous works from their looted collection, and the battle continues.
Paintings Abandoned in a Safe-Deposit Box
While the “real estate listing” art matter hit the news internationally, another Nazi-looted art story hit the news. Earlier this month, the Monuments Men and Women Foundation discovered a pair of Nazi-looted works that were lost over eight decades ago. The two still life paintings of flowers were consigned for auction at the Apple Tree Auction Center in Ohio. The paintings were listed in a database of stolen art, with black-and-white photographs of the works matching the paintings in Ohio.
According to reports, the works had come from an abandoned safe-deposit box in Texas. It is unclear how the works had come from the well-known Schloss collection in France to Texas. It is believed that a US service member brought the two paintings home as an illegal souvenir, something that unfortunately happens often during conflict. In fact, the Chair of TKD’s Art Law Group, Leila Amineddoleh, represented the owner of a looted antiquity who voluntarily returned it to Bavaria after discovering that the piece was looted from a museum during WWII.
While the looting of art during and preceding WWII took place over eight decades ago, long lost masterpieces are still appearing on the art, and real estate, market, as this blog explores.
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