Accomplices in the Role of Victim
The Restitution of Art in Austria
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Since 1945, the Republic of Austria has made several efforts to return fortunes expropriated during the Nazi era. These efforts, however, were often half-hearted, ill-prepared and extremely bureaucratic. Only in 1999 did the Law on the Return of Art accept that Austria had to a certain extent extorted art-works from survivors or the descendents of those murdered by forbidding the export of works despite successful decisions on restitution. The internationally debated case of Block-Bauer, involving the return of five pictures by Gustav Klimt, is one example.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2006, pp. 235–246)