PROVENANCE STUDIES IN EUROPE AND THE USA
Journal Title: Muzealnictwo - Year 2015, Vol 56, Issue
Abstract
The term „provenance” which describes the history of the ownership of works of art, etymologically originated from Latin, and in Polish meant „origin” or „income”. When it comes to art objects, both terms have a certain correlation – the better-documented the origin, the higher the value of the object, which influences its market price and academic significance. The deliberate falsification of provenance was the result of the desire to make a profit, interest potential buyers in the subject for sale, raise prices or disguise the true fate of the object. Misreading ownership titles led to its unconscious falsification. Provenance studies gained great importance in cases related to war confiscations, plunder, thefts and interiors, as a result of which works were deprived of their origin. Painstaking research is often required in order to restore their history to them. Partially unresolved cases as a consequence of World War II of cultural goods returned in the 1990s under pressure from the Jewish lobby. During conferences in Washington (1998), Vilnius (2000) and Prague (2009), declarations urging museums to review their collections for exhibits of unknown origin or which had gaps in their histories between 1933-1945 were adopted. In 2000, the American Association of Museums [now the American Alliance of Museums - translator’s note] published a handbook of provenance studies, and since 2003 the website The NaziEra Provenance enables American museums to publish the results of such studies. Centres for registering, analysing and seeking war losses and carrying out provenance studies have been founded in Europe, including in Poland. The complicated fate of Polish collections during and after World War II impinge on the scope and need of such studies. Objects transported from German repositories which remained unidentified lost their provenance. Works lent to decorate governmental offices and relocated without the consent of the proprietor were also covered. Recently published catalogues of museum and private collections are examples of reliable provenance studies.
Authors and Affiliations
Maria Romanowska-Zadrożna
Keywords
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