General Settlement Fund 2009

Austrian Federal Chancellery (01/18/2010)

On January 12, 2010, the Board of Trustees of the General Settlement Fund looked back on the first six months of the final phase of Austria’s compensation payments to NS victims. Following an amendment of the law in July 2009, about 20,700 claims for compensation amounting to 1.5 billion Euros had been received.

Some 4,600 claims had already been settled by transferring money to 5,400 persons, informed the Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, Speaker of Parliament Barbara Prammer. Many claims covered several persons, Prammer said, explaining the difference between the number of claims and the number of recipients of compensation payments. About 210 million US dollars were allocated to the Fund established in 2001.

National Council Expanded Scope of Restitution of Looted Art

Austrian Federal Chancellery (11/02/2010)

The scope of rules governing the restitution of works of art looted by the Nazis has been expanded. On October 21, 2009, the National Council adopted an amendment of the Art Restitution Act contrary to the votes of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ).

In addition to works of art, the amendment also covers “other movable cultural assets,” which are held by federal museums or owned directly by the Federal Republic. A legal basis has been created for returning assets that were seized by the NS regime outside Austria in the German Reich between 1933 and 1938.

Vienna: Provenance Researchers Submit Report on Leopold Foundation

Austrian Federal Chancellery (01/04/2010) Provenance researchers Sonja Niederacher and Michael Wladika submitted their first report on the findings of their investigation of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation to the Ministry of Culture and to the Foundation on December 22, 2009. Independent provenance research was established in May of 2009 on the basis of an agreement by the Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture with the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.