Restitution of Works of Art

Leopold Museum Private Foundation

The issue of subjecting the Leopold Collection to the provisions in the Art Restitution Act remains unresolved. In response to a number of cases receiving public attention, two independent provenance researchers were placed at the Leopold Museum Foundation in 2008 by the Republic of Austria.

In December 2009 the independent governance research report drawn up by the two provenance researchers Dr. Sonja Niederacher and Dr. Michael Wladika was submitted to the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture. The objective of the report was to shed light on the historical facts and the origins of 23 paintings from the Leopold Collection. The files from the report have been published on the Federal Ministry's homepage.

An independent body was created in February 2010 to legally assess the now available provenance research report with the purpose of examining the historical facts from a legal point of view under the standards applying to the federal museums.

For years the IKG Vienna urged that the confiscated paintings in the Leopold Collection will be returned to their rightful heirs. For more information, please see also www.raubkunst.at.