The exhibitionCollected at Any Cost!presents the research into theprovenance and acquisition of objects in a museum and looks intowhat has happened to them. This is the first time that the complexprocedure of investigation into Nazi provenance research and theprocess of restitution in Austria has been presented to the public inthe form of an exhibition. It focuses in particular on the vast MautnerCollection, which was returned to its rightful owners by the Volkskun-demuseum Wien, in 2015.Objects make their way into public and private collections in­various ways, sometimes by illegal means. Also the collections of theVolkskundemuseum Wien includes objects that should not be there:objects which have been expropriated, stolen or taken from theirrightful owners on the basis of(racist) laws. The exhibition traces thefate of objects from their acquisition under the Nazi regime to theirusage in the museum and eventually their restitution. The focus hereis on the relationships that arise through objects and that take differ-ent forms and effects over the course of time. This is especially wellillustrated by the Mautner Collection most of which was donated tothe Volkskundemuseum Wien following its restitution. The story of thiscollection reflects the close connections between the Mautner familyand the museum since its foundation.The development of a collection is strongly influenced by laws,administrative regulations and agreements which are the result ofpolitical, ideological, and social processes. They have also had adecisive influence on today’s approach and the focus of the collec-tions in the Volkskundemuseum Wien. Just like they profoundly deter-mined the fate of the owners during the Nazi regime, forcing them toflee, depriving them of their assets, their existence and in many casestheir lives. After the Nazi period, laws were passed, under interna-tional pressure, to organise“reparations” and the return of illegallyacquired assets. It was not until 1998, however, that the Republic ofAustria created a basis for the future restitution of looted objects infederal collections, introducing the Art Restitution Act. The ­immediatereason for this had been the confiscation of two works by EgonSchiele in New York. The Commission for Provenance Research andthe Art Restitution Advisory Board were established to provide thenecessary structures for the restitution of federal possessions.7