Argentine prosecutors on Tuesday announced they have placed the daughter of a former Nazi official and her husband under house arrest in the case of a missing 17th-century painting believed to have been stolen by her father decades ago.

The painting "Portrait of a Lady" belonged to Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker before the Nazi takeover of his prominent Amsterdam gallery as Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940.

The Dutch archive lists "Portrait of a Lady," by Italian artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, who died in 1743, as having passed into the hands of a man named Kadgien from Berlin.

The painting had been missing for the last 80 years before it was spotted last month in a real estate ad for a home owned by Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of the late Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien.

When authorities raided the home, the painting was missing. 

Friedrich Kadgien fled to Argentina after the German defeat and the end of World War II. He was never charged with crimes related to the Nazi regime and died in 1978, according to local media reports.

Stolen painting spotted in ad is still missing 

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad last week said they spotted the painting while searching for stolen artwork from the Netherlands. But Argentine authorities have failed to locate the piece since raiding Patricia Kadgien's home.

Authorities then carried out new raids on Monday to find the painting, officials said, at homes linked to Kadgien and the couple's relatives, where investigators found two other paintings presumably dating back to the 1800s.

Patricia Kadgien and her husband were ordered to remain under house arrest for 72 hours starting Monday and will be questioned for obstructing the investigation to locate the painting, officials said.

The couple will be summoned for a hearing before Thursday, the official said, where they are expected to be charged with "concealment of theft in the context of genocide." 

Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez