The Commission for Provenance Research (Kommission für Provenienzforschung) is an institution of the Republic of Austria for provenance research, based in Vienna. Created in February 1998 at the Federal Ministry responsible for culture at the time - which is now the Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Its members work as provenance researchers in the various federal museums and collections.
Background and mission
After Austria merged with Nazi Germany in the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
of 1938, Jews in Austria were persecuted, forced to flee or murdered. Their property was seized or appropriated with or without a verneer of legatlity under anti-Jewish race laws. Under the Austrian Art Restitution Act of 1998, the Republic of Austria has the mandate to proactively research movable art and cultural assets that were seized from their owners during the
National Socialist era (e.g. in the form of art theft, looted gold or the
Aryanization
Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It enta ...
of property carried out by the Nazi state) in the federally owned collection holdings and to transfer them to the former owners or their legal successors. The Commission for Provenance Research is responsible for systematically researching the collection holdings. The results are forwarded to the Art Restitution Advisory Board, which then makes recommendations to the responsible federal minister (restitution) regarding non-returns or returns.
If a positive restitution decision is made by the Ministry, the current owners or legal successors may be sought and contacted by the commission.
The website contains information on investigations, research opportunities and the commission's series of publications since 2008.
To celebrate its twentieth anniversary the Austrian Commission for Provenance Research initiated the publication of a digital encyclopaedia of provenance research entitled the Lexikon der österreichischen Provenienzforschung.
Restitution to the wrong family
in 2018, it was discovered that a painting by Gustav Klimt, ''Apple Tree II'', which had belonged to
Serena Lederer, had been restituted by mistake to the wrong family. because the Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board mistakenly confused the Klimt with a different painting.
Nazi looting organisations
Austrian collections acquired art objects from Jews looted by Nazis through several looting organizations:
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Special commission Linz (the so-called Führer Museum/the so-called Linz Picture Gallery; Führer's reservation of June 18, 1938)
*
Central Office for Jewish Emigration
Central Office for Jewish Emigration () was a designation of Nazi institutions in Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam. Their head office, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration ('), was based in Berlin. Their purpose was to expel Jews from Nazi-c ...
in Vienna was a Nazi-run organization which helped plunder Jews while forcing them to flee. It coordinated measures concerning citizenship, immigration law, foreign currency, Aryanization (transfer of property to non-Jews) and punitive property taxation targeting Jews. It was the only authority authorized to issue exit permits for Jews from Austria (1938–1941).
* Instructions from the Reich Ministry of Finance from the beginning of November 1941, so-called Action 3
* "
M-Aktion The M-Aktion ("Furniture Action" or also "M-Action", abbreviation for "Möbel-Aktion") was a Nazi looting organisation. Attached to the "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg", starting in early 1942 the M-Aktion looted approximately 70,000 homes of F ...
", confiscations of (especially valuable) furnishings by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, in France and the occupied Benelux countries under the
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg
The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce ( or ''ERR'') was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Party, Alfred Rosenberg, from within the NSD ...
.
[{{Cite web , last=Grimsted , first=Patricia Kennedy , title=RECONSTRUCTING THE RECORD OF NAZI CULTURAL PLUNDER: A SURVEY OF THE DISPERSED ARCHIVES OF THE EINSATZSTAB REICHSLEITER ROSENBERG (ERR) , url=https://www.lootedart.com/web_images/pdf/errsurvey_introduction-111019.pdf , website=lootedart.com , quote=The ERR separated art objects from the M-Aktion transferred to the Jeu de Paume into a number of special type-specific “M-A” collections, from paintings and Oriental objets-d’art to weapons and rare books. Inventoried at the Jeu de Paume without revealing the name and address of the home from which they had been seized, most of the M-A collections were forwarded to special ERR art repositories in neighboring Austria, such as Kogl and Seisseneg.1]
External links
Website der österr. Kommission (provenienzforschung.gv.at)
See also
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The Holocaust in Austria
Jews were systematically persecuted, plundered, and killed by German and Austrian Nazis in the Holocaust from 1938 to 1945. Pervasive persecution of Jews was immediate after the German annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss. An estimated 7 ...
*
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
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Unser Wien
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Claims for restitution for restitution for Nazi-looted art
References
Restitution
Cultural history of Austria
Art history
Culture in Vienna
Austrian art