I'm picking a bunch of locks. I'm just curious if the contents and the locks will eventually replenish back to their original state. Specifically, I'm planning to knock over the Dwemer Museum, because he's got good loot. Before I do I want to know if I'm going to be creating a bunch of permanently opened and empty display cases, though.

Can anyone confirm that they replenish and re-lock?

Some will replenish. Not sure the conditions. If it's a feature or a bug. The College of Winterhold has free soul gems in display cases that replenish regularly.

since beth has found a way to place level based loot outside of chests nearly everything respawns endlessly. only very few things dont respawn. this applies to chests desks display cases and even items laying around randomly. respawn time is the same as for the chests of the same place usually. if the chest has loot again the rest will also rePOP (based on lvl in most places but low quality gear is still possible in its place its random).

Awesome, thank you all very much!

Nicely done, Bethesda. This needed to be corrected as it was a significant annoyance. It ain't the Super Bowl or anything, but it's a nice 4 yard run up the gut.