Results of provenance research at the Volkskundemuseum Wiensince 2015Since 2015, eleven dossiers have been submitted by this museumto the Art Restitution Advisory Board. In seven cases it has recom-mended restitution and in once case retention by the museum. Inanother case, the Advisory Board recommended contacting the legalsuccessors, on the basis that the object had been a loan. A furtherdossier was submitted to the Board for information, confirming thatthe objects concerned were not at the Volkskundemuseum Wien.A dossier contained information about an extensive collection ofbooks in the museum's library.Over six hundred objects from four dossiers have been returnedby the Volkskundemuseum Wien to the legal heirs. Some objectshave not been returned despite the recommendations, because thelegal successors have not yet been identified. In fact, the searchfor legal successors is often very difficult and can take years. Thisis due to the fact that the heirs, usually children, grandchildren orgreat-grandchildren of the murdered or fleeing original owners, arescattered around the world.In the past nine years, information about and photographs of overthree hundred questionable objects with unknown owners have beenpublished in the Art Database of Austria’s National Fund. Purchasesmade between 1938 and 1945 at the auction house Dorotheum orfrom art or antiques dealers are typically marked as questionable.The objects themselves will remain in the museum until further notice.It has not yet been possible to complete all the necessary prove-nance research, and there are further acquisitions by the Volkskunde-museum Wien from between 1938 and 1945 which still need to beinvestigated. In addition, all acquisitions from between 1933 to thepresent day, involving transactions that took place before 1945, alsohave to be investigated. As we have seen, Nazi provenance researchat the Volkskundemuseum Wien is far from being complete.MR74