Return art: Historical decisions of the advisory board are pending

Return art: Historical decisions of the advisory board are pending

In its 106th session on February 25, 2025, the art returning board, chaired by Clemens Jablon, made important recommendations for returning collection objects. These affect pieces of furniture and works of art that come from the time of National Socialism and whose origin is partly in Jewish fortune. The advisory board dealt with 42 pieces of furniture that came to the Federal Mobile Administration in 1950. These pieces came from the Lungsanatorium Wienerwald, a former Lebensbornheim, which was confiscated to National Socialist Germany after the connection of Austria and was later returned to the heirs by Hugo Kraus and Arthur Baer. According to the findings of the advisory board, the original assignment of the furniture to this home was incorrect. Nevertheless, it was stated that the legally binding decisions did not represent the Situation as an "extreme injustice", since the heirs have already been granted the majority of the inventory, as Provence research.gv.at reported.

Another crucial point of the session was the clarification of the provenance of objects from the Austrian National Library, which was originally assigned to the entrepreneur Max Hiller. Hiller, who was persecuted by the National Socialists, had sold his collection to the National Library in July 1938. The advisory board recommended the restitution of several objects from this collection, although some of the works of art are considered missing. Furthermore, objects of the lawyer Hanns Fischl were discussed, who died in 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Fischl had had to hand in parts of his collection of museums before it was arrested. The advisory board again made return recommendations for the newly discovered objects, which had not previously been assessed. These recovery recommendations are part of the continued effort to deal with and make amends to the legacy of the persecuted, including digital provenance research, such as information from ots.at