A painting stolen by the Nazis that was spotted in an Argentinian estate agent's advert has vanished, a prosecutor says following a raid on the home.
Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi was featured hanging above a sofa inside a property near Buenos Aires, which was being sold by the daughter of a senior Nazi who fled Germany after World War Two.
A police raid on the house this week however turned up no painting - but two weapons were seized, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez told local media.
Mr Martínez said they were treating it as an alleged cover-up of smuggling, Argentinian daily Clarin reported.
The newspaper reported that the furnishings had been rearranged and the picture was missing from the wall when they raided the property.
Peter Schouten of the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, which first reported the long-lost artwork's reappearance, said there was evidence that the painting was removed shortly afterwards or after the media reports about it appeared.
There's now a large rug with horses and some nature scenes hanging there, which police say looks like something else used to hang there.
Portrait of a Lady was among the collection of Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, much of which was forcibly sold by the Nazis after his death. Some works were recovered in Germany after the war, and displayed in Amsterdam as part of the Dutch national collection.
According to AD, wartime documents suggest the painting was in the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, an SS officer and senior aide to Hermann Göring.
Kadgien died in 1979, but a US file indicated he had substantial assets. His daughters recently listed the property for sale, leading to the newfound interest in the artwork.
Lawyers for Goudstikker's estate are working hard to reclaim the painting as part of the effort to restore the legacy of the stolen artworks.
