The entrepreneur Alexander Beer from Moravia lived from 1911 with his wife Adelheid née Gyurits (1867–1955) in Baden near Vienna. Over the years, he put together an extensive art collection focusing on nineteenth-century Austrian art. Loans from the collection were shown from the 1920s at exhibitions in the Albertina and Wiener Künstlerhaus, Beer's name as owner can be found in catalogues raisonnés of artists such as August Pettenkofen, Rudolf Ribarz, and Carl and Jakob Emil Schindler. As Adelheid was "Aryan", they lived after the annexation of Austria in what the Nazis termed a "privileged mixed marriage". In the joint Vermögensanmeldung (declaration of assets) in August 1938, with a list of items from the art collection including their estimated value, Adelheid stated that she was the sole owner of all objects in the house. The appraisal contained the names of notable artists such as Rudolf von Alt, Eugen Jettel, Ignaz Raffalt, Hans Ranzoni, Anton Romako and Robert Russ. The descriptions of the artworks are not specific enough, however, to determine their whereabouts today.

In the early 1940s, the German art collector Ernst Zix acquired some works directly from Adelheid Beer, some of which he later bequeathed to the Österreichische Galerie and Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum (Lower Austria Provincial Museum). Among these works was a miniature by Moritz Michael Daffinger, which ended up in the Albertina. In July 2015 the Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended the restitution of this miniature.