What is Provenance?
An artwork’s provenance is the history of who owned it, from when it was made to the present. Through provenance, we learn how an object’s functions, meanings, and conditions changed across space and time. This information is an essential part of both art history and museum scholarship. Provenance research also provides insight into the histories of collecting and the art market.
Provenance at the Museum
Our Department of Provenance Research and Object Histories leads the field with provenance research that advances transparency, accountability, and knowledge of our collections. We embed provenance research into acquisitions, loans, exhibitions, and scholarly and public programs.
Since our founding, the museum has been committed to researching the object histories of its collection. In recent years, we have devoted significant resources to systematic provenance research, programming, and education. Today, we work to locate and share information and methodologies with the international museum community and the public, and we seek to shape ethical collecting practices across the field.
Provenance research is always changing. We continuously uncover primary sources relevant to the ownership and movement of works of art and refine our research methodologies. Accordingly, our researchers regularly update records of the museum’s collections, which are made publicly available online.
Ownership Resolutions
In addition to scholarly reasons, we study the provenance of objects to comply with laws and institutional policies. When the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art uncovers evidence of illegal or unethical activities, the museum takes prudent and necessary steps to resolve the status of collection items in question.
