Covering key aspects of provenance research for the international art market, this accessible publication, co-published with the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), explores a range of themes including challenges and best practice to considerations specific to Nazi looted art and the trade in illicit antiquities.
Provenance research is a crucial component of any art-market transaction. Without a provenance it is often difficult to establish a work’s authenticity, its true value or who has legal title. Whether buying, selling or simply maintaining an artwork in either a private or a public collection, the days when a blind eye could be turned to the history (or the lack of a known history) of a work have long gone. Proper, thorough and effective provenance research is the minimum required and demanded in today’s art world – a world that is increasingly recognising the need for greater and more effective self-regulation in the face of fakes, forgeries and challenges to ownership or authenticity that are now commonplace.
Provenance Research Today is essential reading for a broad audience, from those studying to become part of the art world or professionals starting a career in provenance research, to collectors or would-be collectors, dealers, galleries, auction houses, police and art lawyers.
Contributions by:
Lynda Albertson,
Leila Amineddoleh,
Susan J. Cooke,
Tess Davis
Edited by:
Arthur Tompkins
Imprint: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 240mm,
Width: 170mm,
ISBN: 9781848222762
ISBN 10: 1848222769
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 03 December 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Undergraduate
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword; Introduction; Part I: 1: The history and purposes of provenance research; 2: The role of provenance in resolving art-world disputes; 3: The challenges of provenance research; Part II: 4: Best-practice guidelines, research methods and tools; 5: Scientific examination and provenance research: Using science to resolve questions of provenance, identity and false attribution; 6: Data and databases in provenance research; 7: Provenance research and the digital humanities; Part III: 8: Provenance research in museums: The long run; 9: The place of provenance in the catalogue raisonné; 10: The ethics of provenance research and the art market; Part IV: 11: The current state of Nazi-era provenance research, and access to Nazi-era research resources and archives; 12: The journey home: Nazi-era provenance research and restitution; Part V: 13: Researching the structure of the illicit antiquities trade; 14: From soil to showroom: tracing illicit antiquities across the world; 15: The return of the plundered: case studies in the provenance of illicit antiquities; Notes; Selected Resources; About the contributors Index
Judge Arthur Tompkins is a District Court Judge based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has been a faculty member of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art’s Italian-based Graduate Certificate course in Art Crime and Heritage Protection Research since 2010, was the editor of Art Crime and Its Prevention (Lund Humphries, 2016) and the author of Plundering Beauty: A history of Art Crime during War (Lund Humphries, 2018). His research interests inevitably and unavoidably involve provenance in all its forms, as the fascinating and sometimes hidden stories of plundered art are revealed.
