“Collected at all costs!” is the name of an exhibition with which the Vienna Folklore Museum explains from Saturday “why objects came into the museum as a result of National Socialism and how we deal with them”. At least Stephen Mautner, spokesman for the heirs after Anna Mautner (1879-1961), considers this approach to be exemplary, as he explained to journalists today. The collection of his grandparents is the focus of the exhibition, which is also dedicated to fundamental questions of restitution.
The Austrian Art Restitution Act is internationally regarded as exemplary, but only includes the collections of the federal museums. In 2014, the board of directors of the folklore museum, which is run as an association, decided to apply the law in-house and to submit the provenance research dossiers on objects from its own collection to the art restitution advisory board for assessment. Since then, 600 objects have been restituted, around 500 of which relate to the folklore collection of Konrad and Anna Mautner. During the press tour, Stephen Mautner, who came from the USA and will also speak at the opening tonight, explained in moving words why these are still in the folklore museum.
He and his cousins were completely surprised when the museum contacted him. The examination of the collection of the grandparents expelled by the Nazis, which was first confiscated in 1938 and subsequently acquired at an inappropriate price, also led her back into her own family history. The behavior of the museum was exemplary and quickly convinced the heirs that it would be best to donate the objects to the folklore museum after the restitution – especially since the Mautner family had been closely connected to the museum since their great-grandparents. “We have to look to the future with everything we know today. It’s never too late to do the right thing!”
The collection includes research documents, clothing and traditional costumes, shooting targets, song texts, furniture, pipes and pipe bowls as well as photographs of “folk life”, especially in the Salzkammergut. Almost all of the objects are now on display and placed in the context of the history of the collection and the legislation and practice of restitution in Austria. After the Second World War, Anna Mautner never submitted an application for return, explained curator Kathrin Pallestrang; she must have concentrated on the (ultimately successful) fight for the return of her villa on Grundsee, the grandson added. Anna Mautner’s large collection of traditional costumes is now in the Kammerhof Museum in Bad Aussee, where no attempts have been made to talk about a possible return, said Stephen Mautner, who does not want to go to court to do so.
For the Folklore Museum, “Collected at all costs!” the last major exhibition before the long-awaited extensive renovation. From the end of November 2023 to autumn 2024, the Palais Schönborn, where you are accommodated, will be used by the folklore museum for a variety of other activities, explained director Mathias Beitl in an interview with APA. At the same time, the depot in Freudenauer Hafen, which currently covers 2,000 square meters, will be expanded by half, because the building has to be completely emptied before renovation and conversion. The actual conversion work, which will be financed with 25 million euros from the EU resilience fund, is expected to last from autumn 2024 to mid-2027. Beitl said: “We will mobilize ourselves” during the conversion period with a wide range of decentralized research, restoration and communication activities. After the work, it will be “a place that works” and “not a place of representation,” the director promised. It’s not about a more beautiful shell, but about the prerequisites for modern museum work.
(SERVICE – “Collected at all costs! Why objects came into the museum as a result of National Socialism and how we deal with them”, Volkskundemuseum Wien, Vienna 8, Laudongasse 15-18, April 22nd to November 26th, Tue to Sun: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thurs: 10am-8pm; www.volkskundemuseum.at; Virtual gallery for provenance research: www.vgprovenanceresearch.at )