An investigation by Dutch journalists has led tantalizingly close to the recovery of a painting looted from a Jewish art dealer 85 years ago.

But no sooner was the work by the Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi glimpsed in a real estate ad for a luxury property in Argentina than it promptly disappeared.

Now, Interpol and Argentine police have joined the search, urgently trying to prevent “Portrait of a Lady” from disappearing once again, perhaps for good.

Their search is focusing on the seller of the luxury property: the daughter of a high-ranking Nazi who took refuge in Argentina after Germany lost World War II. Friedrich Kadgien, a close advisor to Reichsmarschall Herman Göring, died in Buenos Aires in 1978, and his two daughters still live there.

The discovery has injected a jolt

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