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This is the first accessible reference handbook to cover key aspects of provenance research for the international art market. It guides the reader from a basic introduction to research methods to questions of ethics and the challenges of specific case histories and contexts. 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 recognizing 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. The Provenance Research Handbook is the essential reference tool for anyone involved in the art world, including provenance researchers, owners, or would-be owners, sellers of artworks, galleries, auction houses, collectors, dealers, museums, galleries, police, and art lawyers.

Provenance Research Today: Principles, Practice, Problems

Foreword, Sharon Flescher; Introduction, Arthur Tompkins; I: Provenance Research: History, ethics and complexities; 1: The history and purposes of provenance research, Arthur Tompkins; 2: The ethics of provenance research and the art market, Gareth Fletcher; 3: The challenges of provenance research, Sharon Flescher; II: Methods and resources; 4: Best-practice guidelines, research methods, tools and resources, Marie Stolberg & Andrea Lehmann; 5: Databases in provenance research, Jason Sousa & Ariane Moser; 6: Forensic science and provenance research: Using forensic science to resolve questions of provenance, identity and false attribution, Jennifer Mass; III: Nazi-era looted art; 7: The current state of Nazi-era provenance research,and access to Nazi-era research resources and archives, Marc Masurovsky; 8: The journey home: provenance research under the spotlight, James Radcliffe & Amelie Ebbinghaus; IV: Antiquities; 9: Researching the structure of the illicit antiquities trade, Simon Mackenzie & Donna Yates; 10: From soil to showroom: tracing illicit antiquities across the world, author to be confirmed; 11: The return of the plundered: case studies in the provenance of illicit antiquities, Tess Davis; V: The Provenance Report; 12: The Provenance Report: using it to resolve disputes, Leila Amineddoleh; Notes; Bibliography; Index