Provenance Research

Contact
Mag. Armin Laussegger, MAS
post.k1@noel.gv.at

In conjunction with the scientific examination of the art collection, the Province of Lower Austria has been using provenance research to work toward identifying and subsequently returning art objects looted by the Nazis to their respective museum collections since the 1990s.
Since 2010, the Department of Arts and Culture of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria has been employing a provenance research assistant. In 2015, the State Collections of Lower Austria in cooperation with the Danube University Krems initiated a provenance research project that is to ensure ongoing in-depth examinations of the collection holdings. 

This is where we kindly ask you to support us in our search for the rightful owners of objects of unambiguously questionable provenance. We have thus far been unable to verify the definite historical owners or the rightful inheritors of the following artworks.

e-mail: post.k1@noel.gv.at

Theodor von Hörmann, „Erster Schnee, Dachau“, 1891/1892, Oil on Canvas, 38,5 x 55,5 cm

Under the title “Dorf, Garten mit Frauen an der Thaya,” originally “Erster Schnee in Dachau,” Theodor von Hörmann’s painting of unknown Jewish ownership was acquired by the Gaumuseum Niederdonau in April 1943, just before its scheduled auction at Dorotheum.

An older, partially torn tag with the black number “54” is stuck on the right-hand side of the white inventory label. Hidden underneath the older tag is the handwritten number “4..” (?). The handwritten note “Inv.Nr. 1244” is crossed out in red on the bottom right of the inner stretcher frame. The number “193” is written twice by hand on the outer frame, once on the bottom and once on the bottom left. The handwritten number “444” appears on the bottom right of the outer frame.

Backside „Erster Schnee, Dachau“, 1891/1892