The Müller-Hofmann family was affected by the NS regime’s sanctions imposed in Austria from March 1938 on in various ways. As a politically undesirable person, Prof. Wilhelm Müller-Hofmann lost his teaching post at the Vienna Arts and Crafts College; his wife, his sons, and his mother-in-law Amalie Zuckerkandl were persecuted as Jews. In this situation, the family was in urgent need of financial means to compensate at least partly for Wilhelm Müller-Hofmann’s lost earnings and to support the sons’ escape to Sweden and their life in exile. Faced with this predicament, Prof. Wilhelm Müller-Hofmann sold seven Ukiyo-e prints to the MAK.
 

On 28 September 2007, the Advisory Board recommended the restitution of the prints, which were handed over to a representative of the heirs on 22 January 2009.