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Provenance research

On December 4, 1998 the Bundesgesetz über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenständen (Kunstrückgabegesetz / Austrian Law on the Return of Artefacts) was passed; its aim is to return artworks now housed in Austrian Federal Museums and Collections that entered these federal collections during or because of the Nazi tyranny to their original owners or their legal heirs.

For this purpose the Kommission für Provenienzforschung (Commission for Provenance Research) was established in 1998; its research associates check all the inventories, archivalia and objects in every federal museum for information on a work’s provenance. In 2009 an amendment to the law was passed. Today, the Commission for Provenance Research answers to Andrea Mayer, Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.


Provenance Research in the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Even before the Kunstrückgabegesetz was passed in December 1998, Dr Herbert Haupt, a historian and at the time the Director of the Museum Archive, researched the provenance of all artefacts that had entered the museum holdings during or immediately after the Nazi era. In June 1998 Haupt, assisted by Dr Lydia Gröbl, published a comprehensive and detailed account of the facts entitled “Die Veränderungen im Inventarbestand des Kunsthistorischen Museums während der Nazizeit und in den Jahren bis zum Staatsvertrag 1955“(Changes in the Holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the NS Era and the Years before the Signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955).

His report focused on extant sources in the archives from the period 1938 – 1955, and, together with some later research, it forms an important basis for all subsequent provenance research. Until his retirement at the end of 2008 Haupt remained both Director of the Museum Archive and the provenance research officer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

A number of suspect paintings in the Picture Gallery listed in the art data base compiled by the Nationalfonds (National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism) were researched by Dr Sabine Pénot, curator of the Picture Gallery. Additional research was carried out by Mag. Ulrike Nimeth from the Commission. In 2009 Dr Franz Pichorner, Deputy Director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Director of its Archive, was installed as the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s provenance research officer. In April 2009 the Commission selected Dr Susanne Hehenberger and Dr Monika Löscher, who are systematically checking all acquisitions by the Kunsthistorisches Museum since 1933.

The results of their work are summarized in dossiers that form the basis for the recommendations made by the Kunstrückgabebeirat (Art Restitution Advisory Board) to the relevant ministry. The decisions of the advisory council must be unanimous; it either endorses or rejects a restitution within the meaning of the law. The council‘s reasoning is subsequently published on the commission’s website. If the council endorses a restitution the law empowers the minister in charge to return objects illegally removed from their rightful owners to them or their legal heirs.


Dossiers submitted to the Kunstrückgabebeirat (Art Restitution Advisory Board) since 1998

Guido Adler, recommendation issued on March 16, 2018
recommendation

Isolde Ahlgrimm und Erich Fiala, note issued on June 14, 2019

Elizabeth Bondy, recommendation issued on Oct. 27, 1999
recommendation

Oscar Bondy, recommendation issued on Nov. 30, 2012
recommendation

Jaromir Czernin, recommendation issued on March 18, 2011
recommondation

Deutscher Orden, recommendation issued on September 16, 2014
Beschluss

Stefan Paul and Vera Dukes, recommendation issued on July 6, 2017
recommondation

Hermann Eissler, recommendation issued on June 24, 2009
recommendation

Otto Feist, recommendation issued on May 3, 2013
recommendation

Siegfried Fuchs, recommendation issued on April 20, 2012
recommondation

Leo Fürst, recommendation issued on Oct. 10, 2000
recommendation

Frida Gerngross, recommendation issued on Oct. 15, 2015
recommendation

Jacques Goudstikker, recommendation issued on Dec. 14, 2005
recommendation

Rudolf Gutmann, recommendation issued on May 9, 2008
recommendation

Marianne Hamburger-Löw, recommendation issued on May 9,2008
recommendation

Leo Heymann, recommendation issued on Dec. 3, 2002
recommendation

Ernst Kris, recommendation issued on June 29, 2021
recommendation

Bruno Jellinek, recommendation issued on Sept. 28, 2007
recommendation

Moritz Kuffner, recommendation issued on Oct. 10, 2000
recommendation

Anton Lanckoronski, recommendation issued on Oct. 27, 1999
recommendation

Erich Lederer, recommendation issued on May 10, 1999
recommendation

Felix und Josefine Löw-Beer, recommendation issued on March 20, 2009
recommendation

Giulietta Mendelssohn, recommendation issued on May 15, 2023
recommendation

Alfred Menziles, recommendation issued on June 6, 2002
recommendation

Richard Neumann, recommendation issued on March 16, 2005
recommendation

Richard Neumann, recommendation issued on June 10, 2010
recommendation

Albert Pollak, recommendation issued on Jan. 23, 2001
recommendation

Rudolf Raue, note issued on Sept. 26, 2014

Eduard Reiseneder, note issued on June 15, 2018

Carl Reininghaus, recommendation issued on April 1, 2016
recommendation

Moritz Rothberger, recommendation issued on June 18, 2003
recommendation

Moritz Rothberger, recommendation issued on Nov. 20, 2003
recommendation

Alphonse, Clarice & Louis Rothschild, recommendation issued on Feb. 11, 1999
recommendation

Alphonse, Clarice & Louis Rothschild, recommendation issued on June 28, 1999
recommendation

Alphonse, Clarice & Louis Rothschild, recommendation issued on March 30, 2022
recommendation

Valentine Springer, recommendation issued on May 3, 2013
recommendation

Silbermann/Weinstein, note issued on March 7, 2014

Mary (Marie) Wooster, note issued on March 7, 2014

Sammlung Zsolnay, Empfehlung vom 26.9.2014
recommendation

Decisions for restitutions since 1998

Broken down according to collection this means (counted by inventory numbers)

  • Greek and Roman Collection: 170
  • Archive: 1
  • Library: 63
  • Picture Gallery: 22
  • Collection of Arms and Armour: 36
  • Kunstkammer: 44
  • Coin Collection: 669
  • Collection of Historical Musical Instruments: 13

updated June 26, 2023

Information

Provenienzbeauftragter des Kunsthistorischen Museums:
Dr. Franz Pichorner
franz.pichorner@khm.at

Provienzforscherin im Auftrag der Kommission:
Dr. Monika Löscher
monika.loescher@khm.at

T +43 1 525 24 - 5602

Neue Burg (Archiv)

provenienzforschung.gv.at
www.arbeitskreis-provenienzforschung.org

 

 

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