Jewish News

Based on an agreement by Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance Josef Pröll and Minister of Culture Claudia Schmied, the Amendment to the Art Restitution Act is to pass the Council of Ministers on 23 June 2009. According to the draft amendment, the Ministry of Finance will have a voting right in the Advisory Board on Restitution, the Office of the State Attorneys at the Ministry of Finance will act in an advisory capacity.

Apart from works of art, the Federal Republic should also be able to return “other movable cultural assets”. In addition to items from the collections of the federal museums or the Federal Furniture Collection, the new law will cover “other federal property”.

The term of the Advisory Board on Restitution is to be extended to three years “to ensure independence”. Moreover, assets will be covered which the NS regime seized outside Austria as well as before 1938. The tasks of the Provenance Research Commission (“the systematic description of the provenance of the federal collections in connection with possible seizures by the NS regime“) are to be stated explicitly in the law.

“Restitution is a historic duty which has to be performed by the Republic of Austria in the best possible way. The Amendment to the Art Restitution Act is another important task in the context of indemnification“, said Schmied. Pröll considers this a “clear step towards the comprehensive restitution of works of art of doubtful origin“.