II.1/ Provenance research in the collection of historical musical instruments in Vienna

This article begins with a brief description of the establishment of the Commission for Provenance Research in 1988 and the legal framework for art restitution in Austria. It then focuses on provenance research in the Collection of Historical Musical Instruments (SAM). These musical instruments were originally part of the Weapons and Industrial Art Collections. In 1919, the Weapons and Sculpture and Applied Art Collections were split into separate units. The Musical Instrument Collection was mentioned in the press as a separate entity for the first time in 1919. It grew considerably when the German Reich annexed Austria. In 1939, the historical musical instruments at the Kunsthistorisches Museum were added to a new museum department in Palais Pallavicini with the instruments from the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, which had been dissolved by the Stillhaltekommissar (liquidation commissar). At the end of January 1940, the SAM inventory was also listed separately from the Sculpture and Applied Art Collection. Today, the SAM consists of around 1,400 instruments, of which some 1,000 were acquired after 1938.This contribution addresses the following questions: What happened to the collection during the Nazi era? Who was involved in the collection and its fate? What are the main findings of the provisional report presented to the Art Restitution Council in early 2019? Where do the SAM acquisitions come from, what possibilities are there for research, what online databases are available (e.g. Findbuch, National Fund database on art), and how can research findings be permanently documented?