Provenance How Imprtant Is It In The Collection Of Art

Forums: Art
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Provenance research is the history of the life of a work of art. It identifies the artist, his/her nationality, the name of the work, the size, the medium and the history of its ownership. Provenance research, as a central part of the mission of every American art museum, is a continuous process. As new information is brought to light, it is made available to the public.

Some provenance research is relatively simple. For example, if a painting has had few owners and there is primary evidence of that ownership, then the provenance may be considered complete. However, it is not unusual for a work of art to have had a number of owners and to have moved frequently, from country to country and even continent to continent.

To track the historic movement of works of arts, in general, and those affected by the Holocaust, in particular, requires highly trained specialists who have a working knowledge of several foreign languages and the ability to conduct research in foreign archives. In addition, the provenance researcher must understand the art market as it existed during and after the war, for example, and be trained in art history.

Many of the archives holding relevant material do not pertain solely to works or art but encompass a wide range of information. Furthermore, these archives have not been specifically organized for art historical research nor are they indexed, thus necessitating the researcher to sift through enormous amounts of material to find relevant information.

Record keeping has also varied greatly throughout the years, both in terms of the kind of information that was deemed relevant to record and the reasons for recording it. Unfortunately, down through time many archives and information sources were lost or destroyed, especially during times of war, making research even more difficult and, in certain cases, making it impossible to fully trace the history of a work of art.

Link to Association of Art Museum Directors

Link To Provenance Index Database

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,761 • Replies: 11

No top replies

Of course, this is the responsibility of any sincere collector and the majority of them will only buy through accredited art consultants.

0 Replies

As a fundamental part of its mission, The Art Institute of Chicago has always conducted research on works in its collection. An important part of that research is the effort to establish the provenance (chain of ownership) for a work, from the moment it leaves the artist's studio to the present. Since 1997, and in keeping with the guidelines issued by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in November 1999 and May 2001, the Art Institute has intensified its efforts to determine the provenance for the period 1933-1945 for paintings and sculpture in its collection.

The Art Institute of Chicago Research Project

0 Replies

I read Maine ANtiques Digest. This is a paper to the antiques and arts trade. The recent art fraud involving a Hopper painting was interesting in that it reinforced the point that "even provenance can be faked"
a fake Hopper was sold at auction. It bore a Rehn Gallery label and was , therefore considered a genuine since the gallery had such an important role in Hoppers career.

Since there is so much buying and selling on ebay, it appears that , when some obje ct is offered, when it is of a certain calibre, ebay ought to have some means of verifying. They just happily sit back and stay aloof with their conditions of sale intact and "CAveat Emptor" being the rule of the game.
we collect Arts and Crafts Pottery and have gotten snookered on 2 pieces of pottery, ( Newcomb and SEG). We were delt the pottery through a trusted source and got screwed.(I had the last laugh because I turned in the dealer to the authorities and got most of our money back)

I wonder how many fake Vermeers are out there?

0 Replies

[colorim still listed as a newbie and others who joined later than I, have titles like Poobas in training. =#ff0051][/color]IM BEING DESCRIMINATED AGAINSTI didnt want to turn this forum into a fakes and frauds thread, but the art market, like any other is loaded with con artists parading as honest dealers.

0 Replies

Farmerman, I dub thee the GRAND POOBAH forever and ever or as long as your reign may last Shocked

0 Replies

Farmerman- The designation "newbie" relates to the number of posts that you have written on A2K, not how long that you have been here. Please don't ask me to look for the list of posting levels that the designations change. It may be 50, but don't hold me to that.

There is no discrimination at all. We love ya here. Just keep on postin'!

0 Replies

I agree with caveat emptor to a certain extent -- however, the laws in America are still extremely lax in routing out fakers including the art counterfiters and those passing of a product that is grossly misrepresented. I've discussed this before so I'm not going to digress. It would be great if one could buy directly from an artist and that's not possible in most cases and those artists who are no longer with us have experienced some "tweaking" of the books and records by dealers. Knoedler's scandal with the estate of Willem DeKooning is one, the auction scandals another. Auction houses are not required to authenticate anything and will not stand behind the authenticity. You're suppose to be bidding on something because you, yourself are an expert and can tell a fake. I think that will change (I belive it already has to some extent).

0 Replies

You are quite right LW. Not to many years ago there was a wonderful show at the Walter's Museum of Art in Baltimore of fakes along side the real thing. I remember at the time the curator told me the best way to tell a fake regardless of the paperwork is if it is to perfect. Meaning that art is not perfect but a faker doesn't always know that. For instance one example at the show was a Chou dynasty porcelain vase, only one side of the vase was painted on the fake and the real piece had painting on all sides but the person who created the fake only had a picture to work from.

In addition to de Kooning wasn't there a problem with the Rothko estate and fakes as well?

0 Replies

Thank You Joanne.... heh heh. Ithink poobah in training is all I would aspire to. The responsibility of poobahood would be daunting, and Im really quite lazy.

I love to read about the great fakers of this century. (de Hory, Wacker, but my all time favorite is van Megeren , who scammed the NAzis with his faked Vermeers)
We have a very serious secondary market in fake pottery and art glass and many of the experts cannot tell when they are done well. There is actually a trade magazine on the subject for antiques dealers.

Longwood , last year, had an excellent show of "fakes, frauds, deceptions and lessons learned" Apparently specific, mature antiques markets, like Federalist and English silver have a huuge component of fakes. I Dupont was a well known collector of Fed Silver and his collection was scanned by the geology dept at u of Penn and U of Delaware. It was revealed that , this 'iumportant collection" of silver was 85% fake. This was revealed by the trace metal concentrations in the silver metal . Since really old silver wasnt refined as purely, it often contains significant concentrations of gold, tin, copper and a few other metals. Most of Dupont collection was 'pure" silver, a metallurgical characteristic that wasnt discovered until the late 1800s. Since their was no "non destructive" way to test until Enrgy Dispersive X-ray, the fakes were bought and sold like big business. So the Dupont collection, the Ford collection ,.and theStanford collections are mostly fake. They are good silver, but no antique properties.

I have a William Baziotes painting pair that was givento my father by the artist in the 60s. i am planning to donate them to a museum. i was wondering how i could establish an iron clad provenance. I was there when Mr B gave the paintings to my Dad as a payment for a gambling debt. Would a notarized letter be sufficient?

0 Replies

Oh now you make me want to be on the East Coast I just love Longwood. When my mother was alive I took her there every season she jusst loved it so much.

Hmm, not sure about your painting but I think you should check with the museum you plan to donate to. What are their requriements are. Here is a link to the Association of Art Museum Directors on the subject: http://www.aamd.org/documents/tax_rec.html

0 Replies

Joanne, that was exactly the information I needed. Our tax accountant (One of the lesser known Stooges) has no idea about tax information on works of art that are acquired and donted. He doesnt even use the internet for extra forms.

I can see that this is not the tax year I would donate the BAziotes works anyway. , I dont need to offset any great gains anywhere since my losses have done quite well.

Yeh, Longwood is a great technical resource for establishing provenance in antiques and certain Federalist arts. However, they are so narrow in their expertise, that, when I asked about anyone appraising some Arts and Crafts pottery, they have no-one and plan not to even recognize anything from the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco.

0 Replies

Provenance How Imprtant Is It In The Collection Of Art

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know