Collecting and Provenance

Jane Milosch directs the Smithsonian Institution’s Provenance Research Exchange Program, and was founding director of the Provenance Research Initiative (SPRI), which focused on WWII-era provenance research, international cultural heritage, and training programs. She previously served as Senior Program Officer for Art, leading pan-institutional programs and strategic planning efforts, and was appointed the U.S. Representative to Germany’s “Schwabing Art Trove” Task Force. She has held curatorial positions at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. and in Detroit, Iowa, and Munich, Germany, and is an Honorary Professor in the School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow. Nick Pearce holds the Sir John Richmond Chair of Fine Art at the University of Glasgow, and specializes in the arts of China, most particularly in the context of the history of collecting. His career has spanned both museums and universities, as he has held positions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, and at Durham and Edinburgh universities. He joined the University of Glasgow in 1998, where he has held the positions of Head of History of Art and Head of the School of Culture & Creative Arts, and is a Smithsonian Research Associate.

Foreword

Lynn H. Nicholas, Independent Scholar



Preface

Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Institution



Introduction

Acknowledgements

Nick Pearce, University of Glasgow, and Jane C. Milosch, Smithsonian Institution



Provenance: Past and Future Challenges



1.The Provenance of Provenances

Christian Huemer, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere

2.Intellectual Property and Ownership History

Christel H. Force, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

3.Provenance Research in Museums: From the Back of the House

to the Front

Jane C. Milosch and Andrea Hull, Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative (SPRI)

4.Transforming Research Methodologies: The Frick Art Reference Library’s Collaborative Approach

Louisa Wood Ruby and Samantha Deutch, The Frick Art Reference Library

5.Digging in Digital Archives: Recovering Context for the Getty Museum’s Orpheus Mosaic

Nicole Budrovich, J. Paul Getty Museum

6.Exhibiting Provenance in the University Museum: A Case Study

Nancy Karrels, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

7.Provenance in 2050

David Newbury, J. Paul Getty Trust, and Louise Lippincott, Carnegie Museum of Art



Objects in Motion



8.Provenance as Palimpsest: The Mazarin Venus

Judith Barr, J. Paul Getty Museum

9.Archaeology, Fakery, and Lunacy: N.S. Brown's Chinese Neolithic Collection

Nick Pearce, University of Glasgow

10.The Importance of Provenance in Nineteenth-Century Paris and Beyond: Four Works of Art from Prince Pierre Soltykoff’s Famed Collection of Medieval Art

Christine E. Brennan, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

11.The Medieval Bury Chest: Mapping the Journey from Durham Cathedral to the Burrell Collection, Glasgow

Elizabeth Hancock, University of Glasgow; Erma Hermens, Rijksmuseum; and Lindsay Gordon, Glasgow Museums

12.Plunder, Dissolution, and Dodgy Dealing: The International Market for Spanish Art in the Nineteenth Century

Hilary Macartney, University of Glasgow, and Véronique Gerard Powell, Paris-Sorbonne Université

13.Documenting the Violin Trade in Paris: The Archives of Albert Caressa and Émile Français, 1930-1945

Carla Shapreau, University of California, Berkeley; Jean-Philippe Échard and Christine Laloue, Musée de la musique, Paris

14.Twice Plundered, and Still Far from Home: Tracing Nazi-Looted Books in Minsk and Moscow

Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University



Museums and Collection Formation: Provenancing Art and Nature



15.Lost and Found: Reestablishing Provenance for an Entire Museum Collection

Ann McMullen and Maria Galban, National Museum of the American Indian

16.Thomas Pattinson Yeats (1746–1782), Naturalist: Connecting Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, and William Hunter

E. Geoffrey Hancock, University of Glasgow

17.A Kato Mosi Kaka and Other Tongan Treasures from the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842) in the Smithsonian Institution

Adrienne L. Kaeppler, National Museum of Natural History

18.Provenance and Place in Indigenous Australia

Gaye Sculthorpe, British Museum

19.Pursuing Provenance: Perspectives on the Arts of Africa

Christine Mullen Kreamer, National Museum of African Art

20.One Object, Three Histories: Provenancing the Dromedary

Louise Lippincott, Carnegie Museum of Art

21.Forest Gold

Edward J. Bronikowski, Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park Conservation Biology Institute



Provenance and Collecting Policies: Practical, Legal, and Ethical Challenges



22.A Voyage into the Half-known: Museum Ethics in the Early Twentieth Century

Petra Winter, Staatliche Museen, and Carola Thielecke, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

23.Forgotten Language of the Ledger: Signaling Ownership, Authority, and Provenance with Museum Accession Status

Joshua Gorman, National Museum of American History

24.The Holy Family on an Unholy Odyssey: Legal Ownership of Stolen Trophy Art

Christa Roodt, University of Glasgow

25.Problems, Practices, and Politics of Provenancing Objects from China’s Yuanmingyuan

Louise Tythacott, University of London

26.Crisis Response and Beyond: The National Gallery of Australia’s Asian Art Provenance Project and Other New Initiatives

Bronwyn Campbell, National Gallery of Australia

27.Antiquities Trafficking and the Provenance Problem

Donna Yates and Emiline Smith, University of Glasgow

28.Before, During, and After: Documenting Museum Collections in Times of Crisis and Disaster

Brian I. Daniels and Corine Wegener, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative



Endnotes

Index

About the Contributors