Law as a Research Mandate: Provenance Research under the Austrian Art Restitution Act

Austria’s Art Restitution Act of 1998 established a distinctive model for addressing Nazi-looted art in federal collections. Rather than creating an individual legal claim for restitution, it mandates proactive and systematic provenance research. The contribution examines how this legal framework has shaped the work of the Commission for Provenance Research and the Art Restitution Advisory Board. It considers the relationship between historical research and legal assessment and reflects on almost three decades of Austrian practice in the context of current international developments. At its core is the question of how law can function not only as a basis for restitution, but as a mandate for the state to investigate its own collections.