PROVENANCE RESEARCH


The year 1998 saw the beginning of another discussion on the provenance and restitution of art objects in the possession of the Austrian state. This led to the passing of the Art Restitution Act (BGBl. 1998/181), which provided for the return of art objects from Austrian federal museums and collections. Members of the Provenance Research Commission were set to work in all federal museums and collections to review the holdings in regard to their provenance.

 
It was in this respect that Maren Gröning conducted active provenance research from 1998 to 2000 and circumstantial provenance research from 2000 to 2009 regarding the period from 1938 to 1960 in the Albertina. Forty-nine dossiers were submitted to the Provenance Research Commission in these years. Two new officers have been entrusted with the continuation of the research by the Commission as of August 2009: Marta Riess-Ramallo and Katja Fischer. Not least because of the Amendment to the Art Restitution Act, it is these officers’ task to extend the provenance research to the period from 1933 until today.

 

WHAT IS PROVENANCE RESEARCH?
WHAT IS RESTITUTION?

The task is extremely complex. Provenance research is concerned with completely clearing up the ownership history of cultural goods.

 
From April 1938 on, the property of Austrian Jews was systematically confiscated. The measures ranged from “wild aryanizations” to the discriminating use of taxes or the introduction of discriminating taxes such as the “Reichsfluchtsteuer” (Reich escape tax) or the “Judenvermögensabgabe” (Jewish property tax). The expropriation comprised all categories of property, cultural goods in the widest sense (from paintings, drawings, and sculptures to furniture), but also simple household effects. According to their value, the goods expropriated this way were sold to important museums and collections, but also handed over to party bigwigs or simply disposed of. Museums and libraries actually took the initiative by submitting “shopping lists” to the authorities. The sales were handled by the Dorotheum auction house (among others), which thus turned into an important trading center for Nazi-looted property both under National Socialism and in the period after 1945.

 
The first restitution acts passed immediately after the end of the Second World War and in the years after proved inadequate. In addition, the ban on exports in force produced the effect that many restituted objects remained in the possession of museums and collections as forced dedications granted in exchange for the permission to export other items. The journalist Hubertus Czernin has called this “the state’s blackmail practice in dealing with people expelled by the Nazis and the successors of the murdered” (Der Standard, June 30, 1999; open letter to Federal Minister Elisabeth Gehrer).

 
This shows that provenance research cannot be restricted to the years between 1938 and 1945, but must also include acquisitions from Germany in and after 1933 as well as purchases made after 1945.

 

(Last update July 2010)