Restitution of Art Works

In 1998/1999 the National Fund of the Republic of Austria was assigned by law the responsibility to dispose of art works "without heirs" that had been transferred from public property, for the benefit of NS victims.

This applies to those objects in museums and collections belonging to the Federal State and the City of Vienna which were acquired in connection with the NS regime, but for which no restitution beneficiaries can be identified.

The National Fund supports the bodies of the Federal State and of the City of Vienna dealing with art restitution in identifying heirs, in order to ensure that as many art objects "without heirs" as possible will find their lawful owner, prior to being disposed of. For this purpose, an art data base was set up with the National Fund, in cooperation with the bodies working on art restitution, public museums and collections.

This link will take you to the art data base: