On Wednesday, May 10th, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Birgit Kirchmayr from the Institute for Modern and Contemporary History at the JKU as a guest in the doctoral course "Ethics and Society". As the second guest speaker this semester, she gave a lecture on the current status of Nazi provenance research and art restitution in Austria - a topic to which Prof. Kirchmayr, as scientific coordinator of the Austrian Advisory Board on Art Restitution, has a particularly close relationship.

In the course of the lecture, it was particularly emphasized that provenance research not only deals with the return of exceptionally valuable (and correspondingly media present) art objects, but also with comparatively everyday possessions that were stolen or extorted from their owners during the Nazi era have been. In addition, the students were given interesting insights into the historical development of art restitution as well as the changing legal situation, which today forms the basis for the return and compensation of victims (or their descendants) of Aryanization, art theft or similar. Prof. Kirchmayr also described the challenges associated with contacting those entitled to restitution, as well as examples of joy at the late assumption of responsibility by the Republic of Austria for the crimes committed during the Nazi era.

The detailed discussion that followed enabled the content presented to be deepened and illustrated the great interest of all participants in the lecture.

Link to the lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Birgit Kirchmayr