In the NYT yesterday, in the piece “Matisse From Gurlitt Collection Is Returned to Jewish Art Dealer’s Heirs’ by Melissa Eddy:
Germany has invested €13 million in provenance research and restituted 12,000 objects over the past decade, many of them books. But families and even small museums have been stymied by uncertainty over where to go for information related to looted works, as well as some insensitivity as to what is at stake.
It’s the verb form restituted. A transitive verb restitute is entirely comprehensible in the context (especially given the noun restitution), but I didn’t think I’d ever experienced it before. Not in NOAD2. But a couple of on-line dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, Collins) have brief entries for the word, and OED3 (March 2010) has a nice entry for it.
From the entry, which has two senses, both transitive — one with human objects, one with inanimate objects. Here, with one relevant cite for each:
1. trans. To restore to a position or status; to reinstate, rehabilitate; to re-establish; (also) to make restitution to. [first cite c1503]
1997 Daily Tel. 26 June 14/4 The disclosure, by Globes, will prompt a fresh look at Britain’s post-war record on restituting Nazi victims.
2. To return, hand back, or make restitution of (a thing). Also intr. [first cite 1657]
1893 Field 4 Mar. 334/1 Having promised to restitute expenses to professionals if they did not win.
The NYT story has sense 2.
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