The municipal councilor for culture spoke Wednesday. Austria has moved over the past three decades from depicting itself as a victim of the Nazis to acknowledging that its citizens played a large role in atrocities under Adolf Hitler after he annexed the country in 1938 and working to make amends.
Andreas Mailath-Pokorny said 5,880 art works, books and other objects have been returned since 1999. Mailath-Pokorny says more than 70,000 items in Viennese museums and libraries were checked for their provenance.