Provenance Research Controversy at the Leopold Museum
July 13 2020
Picture: Der Standard
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some controversy has been brewing in the Austrian Press concerning provenance research in Vienna's Leopold Museum. The museum, which contains significant works by the likes of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, has so far not been able to establish the provenance of just over 90% of its collection. The museum has been subject to protests in the past regarding artworks with murky WWII histories and controversies in restitution (the above picture dates to 2008).
The complicated legal position of the museum's collection, which was established as a semi-private foundation with 5,266 works and a fortune from Rudolf Leopold, means that it has straddled both the public and private spheres. The museum is due to tender a new contract for an inhouse provenance researcher who will now report directly to a Federal Commission and its advisory board.
