Objects Confiscated During the Nazi Era in Exhibitions of Austrian Federal Museums

Abstract

Even though the restitution of Nazi-looted property from Austrian federal museums is clearly regulated by law, dealing with objects that are still or have been returned to the collections, or with gaps in exhibitions that have resulted from restitutions, poses challenges for museum work. Through a semiotic analysis of museum media (exhibitions, audio guides, information boards as well as museum shops) in Austrian federal museums in 2020 and 2021, this article investigates whether and how the topics of Nazi-looted property, provenance research, and restitution are represented. The research revealed that these topics, which are inevitably linked to violence, are often completely ignored or only presented in exhibition sections on the histories of the museums, as if the problem belonged to the past.