In Austria, the former State Secretary for Culture Andrea Mayer (Greens) announced the drafting of a corresponding restitution law in the first quarter of 2023. In August, Mayer referred to a draft that was ‘in consultation with the coalition partner’ and that she wanted to ‘at least ensure that the ideas do not disappear into a drawer’.
Before the national council elections, the issue was only mentioned in the Green Party’s election programme. By then, a draft had been available and ‘discussed with the coalition partner at both a technical and political level’, but had not met with their approval. Recently, the ÖVP announced that they no longer saw any chance of passing the law before the election.
In the meantime, the Weltmuseum in Vienna, which has the biggest collection from colonial regions in Austria, has selected a group of over 4,300 objects that came into the collection during the so-called ‘training voyages’ of His Majesty’s Ship Saida between 1884 and 1899.
The Museum of applied arts is examining the colonialist and imperialist aspects of the museum’s collection history, into which the holdings of the ‘Orientalisches Museum’ and ‘Handelsmuseums’ were once also integrated.
