Vugesta

The Vugesta (also VUGESTAP) for “"Vermögens-Umzugsgut von der Gestapo"" ("Property Removed by the Gestapo") was a Nazi looting organization in Vienna that from 1940 to 1945 seized the possessions of 5,000-6,000 Viennese Jews. It was a key player in the aryanization of Jewish property, redistributing private property stolen from Jewish Austrians to non-Jewish or Aryan Austrians during the Nazi reign in Austria. 
Creation.
On August 22, 1940, the Reich Minister of Justice issued a decree to the "Reichsverkehrsgruppe Spedition und Lagerei" (Reich Transport Group Forwarding and Storage). Jews who fled lost their citizenship and their property was seized and resold. Proceeds went to shipping companies, warehouses and regional tax authorities in Vienna and Berlin. 
The Vienna Gestapo founded the VUGESTA to auction off Jewish belongings beginning on September 7, 1940. 
Karl Herber managed the Vugesta, headquartered in the "Reichsverkehrsgruppe Spedition und Lagerei / Ostmark" (formerly Central Association of Freight Forwarders for Austria, Vienna 1, Bauernmarkt 24). A collaboration between Austrian freight forwarders, Austrian warehouses and the Gestapo, the Vugesta employed 12 people. 
The Gestapo, the Vugesta and the Dorotheum.
In the first few years, the VUGESTA concentrated on property stolen from Jews fleeing Nazi terror or deported to camps. Jews were obliged to hand over their packed removal goods (so-called "lifts") to forwarding agents before they left. After the beginning of the Second World War, however, these "lifts" were no longer forwarded, but remained with the freight forwarders or at intermediate stations.
Freight forwarders were also obliged to report on Jewish clients. In these cases, the Vugesta and Gestapo confiscated the property. The looted property was auctioned off through the Dorotheum, in Vienna.
Nazi party members, soldiers and local authorities could purchase the looted property along with war invalids, and people who had lost their homes. The Nazi Party controlled the seizures and the auctions. 
By the end of 1943, most of the property looted from Jews had been resold. After that, the Vugesta concentrated on selling off the deported Jews' home furnishings. To this end, the Krummbaumgasse furniture recycling center (headed by Bernhard Witke and Anton Grimm) worked closely with the Central Office for Jewish Emigration initiated by Adolf Eichmann. The appraisers were given addresses and keys to the apartments, which were then cleared by forced laborers. 
Valuables and works of art.
All artworks and goods with an estimated value of over 1,000 Reichsmarks were auctioned through the Dorotheum- unless the Führer reserved them for himself. Hans Posse, the special representative for the Linz Führer Museum, had first pick. Museums had right of first refusal and purchased many artworks looted from Jews. After that, the Vugesta appraisers such as Bernhard Witke or Anton Grimm, had access. Only when Nazi officers, art dealers and other favorites showed no interest were the goods sold to museums, dealers and private individuals via public auctions. 
Business volume.
Vugesta’s proceeds for the years 1941 and 1944, are estimated at 14 million Reichsmarks, of which 10 million Reichsmarks came from the Dorotheum auction house. 
From the early autumn of 1940 until the end of the war, the Vugesta seized and sold the belongings of around 5,000 to 6,000 Jews and the home furnishings of at least 10,000 Jewish families who fled or were deported for over five million Reichsmarks. In addition, the Vugesta made a further ten million Reichsmarks by selling items through the Dorotheum auction house. The profit from these sales financed the Nazi Reich. 
Whitewashing theft.
The legal-looking transactions at the prestigious Dorotheum were used to whitewash the Nazi-looting of the objects sold. In 1997, Oliver Rathkolb described the mecanism in "From 'Legacy of Shame' to the Auction of 'Heirless' Art in Vienna: Coming to Terms 'Austrian Style' with Nazi Artistic War Booty" in a chapter called "the whitewashing problem"
In her study of Nazi looting of art collections in Vienna ("Was einmal war Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens") Sophie Lillie detailed the mecanism by which theft was disguised as repossesion for repayment of debt. The Art Newspaper summarized this process in a review of her book:When a Jew applied to emigrate, in theory only 25% of his goods went to the State. An inventory was submitted and the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz decided which works of art were of national importance and these were “made secure”, ie; confiscated. It was rare, however, for what was left to be reunited with the owner, who had usually already fled to an unknown destination. Instead, it sat in Nazi-owned warehouses, which sold the goods to pay the “storage charges” that the owner obviously could not cover. A frequent penalty for emigrating was to be stripped of citizenship, and at this point all goods fell to the State, which would sell them as “property of a Jew” through the State-owned auction house, the Dorotheum, or the dealership of VUGESTA, the branch of the Gestapo responsible for the valuation of emigré goods. 