The enactment of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990 represented the culmination of a long process of negotiation and ultimate compromise between representatives of Native American tribes and American museums. This paper focuses on the initial implementation stage of NAGPRA. That stage reveals that interaction between the two sides has entailed (and continues to entail) negotiations not only concerning the disposition of specific Native American cultural objects but also equally important concerning the professional identities of Native Americans and museum professionals, respectively. Viewed in this way, NAGPRA's post-enactment process is seen to illustrate the various functions of law (both symbolic and concrete) in maintaining the social and ideological dialectic of American society.

The preservation of cultural heritage is costly and one has to decide if and which items of cultural heritage are worth preserving. A method for determining the value of cultural heritage is therefore needed. In economics, several evaluation procedures are applied. This article briefly comments on impact studies and willingness- to-pay studies (hedonic market approach and the travel cost approach) and then focuses on contingent valuation surveys. The application of contingent valuation on the arts and related problems are discussed. Finally, the article combines the evaluation methods with democratic decisions by referenda. Switzerland presents an example of referenda held on art policy.

This article describes the history of the objects stored at the Mauerbach monastery in Austria from soon after the Second World War until their auction last year. During the war, the German National Socialists had collected art works throughout Europe in many different ways—through theft, confiscation, forced sales, and legitimate sales. Both the legal issues raised by the attempts to determine the rightful owners of these objects and the criticism which the Austrian government received for failing to find more of these owners are discussed. The situation was finally resolved last year when the remaining objects were auctioned and the proceeds given to various organizations representing the victims of the Nazis.

At long last, the story of the “Mauerbach Treasure” has been concluded. This hoard of art objects has been the source of many legends owing to the secrecy, including even the identification of the objects themselves, which had surrounded it for many years.1