What is the provenance or the origin of an artwork?
Research on the history of ownership, or provenance, of works of art has always been an important part of a curator's work.
Museum curators conduct this research to shed light on the historical, social, and economic context in which a work of art was created and collected, as well as on the history of taste.
Art historians have always sought to know the identity of previous owners, but such information is often difficult to establish.
When a family has owned a painting for several generations there may be no sale records. Frequently, private collectors prefer to buy and sell works anonymously through dealers or auction houses, whose records may not disclose the real owner.
Moreover, many dealers and auction houses active in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are no longer in business, and their records may have been lost or destroyed. Thus it is rare to find works of art having a complete history of ownership. Therefore, it is important to remember that gaps in provenance do not necessarily indicate that a work was looted or stolen.
Reconstruction of a complete history of ownership for a given work can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Many records of ownership have been destroyed as a result of natural disasters, man-made disasters such as war, and neglect.
Dealers and auction houses sometimes withhold information at the request of previous owners who wish to maintain their anonymity.
Much archival information remains undiscovered or difficult of access. Without this provenance, often solely recognized authenticators refuse a certificate of authenticity.
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