Feature image: Picasso, Les Femmes d'Alger, 1955 via Wikipedia. Sold for record-breaking amounts; an excellent modern example of high-value provenance.
What is Provenance?
“Provenance” is a term that’s often mentioned in the art world. Still, you may not be aware of what exactly it means and why it’s so crucial that some museums even feature the information on an artwork’s wall text.
In short, provenance is the chronological record of the ownership of an artwork, detailing who owned it and its location from its creation to the present. Reading through a work of art’s provenance may seem like a boring list of names and dates. However, in reality, the lengthy research investigating a work’s provenance is interdisciplinary and essential to telling the “full story” of a work.
Learn about what provenance is, its origins, how it became an entire field of its own, and why it matters in every aspect of the art world.
Definition of provenance
The word “provenance” originates from the French “provenir,” meaning “to come from” or “to originate.” Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as “the history of the ownership of a work of art or antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.”
An artwork’s provenance aims to detail the history and ownership of the work from its creation to the present. According to the International Foundation for Art Research in their Provenance Guide, provenance is much more than just the artwork’s pedigree, as it is also “an account of changing artistic tastes and collecting priorities, a record of social and political alliances, and an indicator of economic and market conditions influencing the sale or transfer of the object” and that provenance research is “by nature interdisciplinary.”
Provenance can be determined by carefully examining registrar records, curatorial records, and conservation files.
The term “provenance” is used to apply only to works of art. Now, provenance has become an important aspect of research into any historical or cultural artifact displayed or housed in a museum.
History of tracking art ownership
The record-keeping and documentation of where works of art came from were not widely practiced in the eras before WWII, thus resulting in large gaps in many works’ provenance. Provenance research became a priority for many museums and art collectors after the mass amounts of Nazi looting from 1933 to 1945 during the party’s regime. According to provenance researcher Dr. Joanna M. Gohmann at the National Museum of Asian Art in an interview from April 2024, provenance research became “a more strategic, organized, and professionalized practice” in 1998 when the Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets announced eleven principles to guide international researchers on Holocaust-era provenance work.
The eleven guidelines are as follows:
Art that had been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted should be identified.
Relevant records and archives should be open and accessible to researchers in accordance with the guidelines of the International Council on Archives.
Resources and personnel should be made available to facilitate the identification of all art that had been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted.
In establishing that a work of art had been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted, consideration should be given to unavoidable gaps or ambiguities in the provenance in light of the passage of time and the circumstances of the Holocaust era.
Every effort should be made to publicize art that is found to have been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted in order to locate its pre-War owners or their heirs.
Efforts should be made to establish a central registry of such information.
Pre-War owners and their heirs should be encouraged to come forward and make known their claims to art that was confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted.
If the pre-War owners of art that is found to have been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted, or their heirs, can be identified, steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution, recognizing this may vary according to the facts and circumstances surrounding a specific case.
If the pre-War owners of art that is found to have been confiscated by the Nazis, or their heirs, can not be identified, steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution.
Commissions or other bodies established to identify art that was confiscated by the Nazis and to assist in addressing ownership issues should have a balanced membership.
Nations are encouraged to develop national processes to implement these principles, particularly as they relate to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for resolving ownership issues.
Provenance research is now an essential aspect of museum curation and archival sciences. Many universities offer classes and training programs on provenance, which detail its history, what constitutes “due diligence” within the field, and what laws are in place to protect antiques and works of fine art.
Why it matters
Provenance and provenance research matter to several different groups, including those who work in museums or galleries and those outside of them.
For museums and galleries, provenance is paramount to artwork's moral, legal, and ethical display. Aside from general archival and record-keeping purposes, as previously stated, research into Holocaust spoilation and the Nazi looting of art and other significant cultural property helps to ensure that the large number of works that were unlawfully taken from their rightful owners, which are still unaccounted for, are returned and appropriately attributed. From a historical perspective, provenance research into Nazi-looted art shows us how greatly the fascist regime valued the control and seizure of Europe’s diverse cultural heritage, according to the Getty Research Institute. Provenance also proves an artwork’s cultural significance by thoroughly tracing who owned the work belonged to and where it was kept, showcasing the changes in taste within the art market throughout the years. Displaying provenance records also allows museums to maintain transparency with visitors.
For art collectors, provenance matters for ethical and legal reasons. Knowing the provenance of a work in one’s collection will help the collector to understand whether or not they actually own the work, ensuring that the work does not belong to someone else after purchase. Additionally, if a work has a detailed and near-complete provenance (which is very rare), that may increase its selling value. One example of a work with detailed provenance is The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) by Jan van Eyck.
In the aforementioned interview, Dr. Joanna M. Gohmann explained provenance “is something that really does touch a lot of people’s lives. It’s not just isolated to the museum field. Maybe we use a fancy term to describe what we’re doing, but it’s not as alien as one might think it is.”
Works of art are so much more than what’s on the canvas—the frame, its wall text, and its physical location in the gallery or museum—they all inform how viewers perceive the art subtly. Provenance, while more of a “behind-the-scenes” piece of the artwork’s puzzle, still adds to the overall history and additional meaning one can find in the work. Every artwork exists in the context of the time it was created and who it has belonged to.
By appreciating and understanding the lengths art researchers go to tell a complete story of the artworks shown in museums and galleries, viewers can foster an even deeper appreciation for their favorite pieces.
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