TEFAF Maastricht, the European Fine Art Foundation’s spring fair, is known for the high quality of artworks its dealers display each year, and for its extensive vetting procedure, which ensures that the treasures on offer have been verified as authentic.
That process always includes a check on the work’s provenance — the artwork’s history of previous ownership. Even so, said Will Korner, TEFAF’s head of fairs, there are always things that fall through the cracks. “Objects are removed every year, at basically every fair, regarding issues of provenance,” he said.
Any collector who is prepared to spend a considerable sum on a painting, sculpture or artifact should make sure that they do their own independent research, he added.
“They can feel confident that a standard has been applied that is leading in the market, but I would always encourage every single buyer to conduct their own checks,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s something that any art lawyer or art consultant would tell them to do.”
Tainted beauties
During World War II, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi art agents looted untold millions of artworks and cultural objects. Many artworks still have not found their way back to their rightful owners, or their beauty has been tainted by a history of theft.
Collectors of the type of works that the Nazis favored, particularly old masters and Impressionist paintings, should be aware that what they are buying could have a wartime history. The same is true for artifacts and antiquities that may have been looted or stolen in other global conflicts, as well as ceremonial objects like masks and other heritage from formerly colonized nations.
To avoid buying a work of art with a problematic history, and to guard against potential future claims, art provenance specialists say it is crucial to do some digging before you buy. Although new information comes to light every day, the best way to protect yourself is to ask the right questions, request as much data as possible, and independently verify that the information you get is accurate and up-to-date.
The prospect of trying to discover the entire history of the 350-year old painting you want to buy might seem daunting. But Perry Schrier, a World War II cultural heritage adviser for the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, said collectors do not need to hire a private researcher or an art detective for this work — in most cases.
Provenance research is a fast-growing field within the art world, and today there are many independent experts available for hire. But some preliminary research that you can do on your own might quickly rule out any need for such a specialist, or help you learn what kind of specialist you need.
“There’s a fair amount you can already do from your living room, from your laptop,” Schrier said. “Later, there may be some things you have to go find in the archives, and that will be a second level, but the websites are very convenient nowadays and a great place to start.” Many resources are available to the public for free, or for a small fee.
A basic provenance check may take a couple of hours or about half a day, but it should include a few steps that either put the item in the clear or raise red flags. If anything strikes you as potentially fishy, it is time to engage with additional experts, Schrier said.
If you do engage a provenance researcher, look for one who specializes in the area of research particular to the work you are buying — for example, Dutch old masters, German Expressionists or Congolese masks — and can speak and read the languages relevant to any archival research.
The important thing is to make sure you do due diligence before you buy, said Amelie Ebbinghaus, a director of the Art Loss Register, a London-based organization that helps the art trade track lost, looted or stolen objects. And make sure you request all the documentation the dealer or owner already has about the artwork, including information about the sources they used, before putting any money on the table.
“That may seem obvious, but quite often people ask for it right after they buy the work,” she said, “and that doesn’t give them the same protection.”
“Start with the object”
The first step will be to have a good look at the piece of art, both front and back. “Always start with the object,” advised Richard Aronowitz, global head of restitution for Christie’s international auction house.
“The back of the painting, or the stretcher, might bear some indication of its ownership history,” he said. “You’re looking for labels, stamps, inventory numbers, inscriptions,” as well as any sign that such labels have been removed.
Nazi owners sometimes marked their works with a swastika or an eagle on the back, and that would be an obvious red flag. (Conversely, such signs can be misleading, Aronowitz said, as forgers have also used them to make a fake work seem genuine by suggesting that it has been through many hands.)
More likely, you will find labels of the gallery owners who handled the work in the past. “You’re looking for clues, evidence,” Aronowitz said, “but deciphering evidence is difficult.” If you notice something unusual, you can often look it up on the internet, or consult an expert.
Next, Ebbinghaus recommended plugging a photo of the work into a search engine like TinEye, or an app like Google Lens, which will scour the internet for billions of images to find any potential match. “You’d be surprised by what you can find there from what has recently been sold on the market,” she said.
Ask questions
Once you have found out what you can, ask the seller, or current owner, for all the information that is currently known about the work’s previous owners.
Most sellers at a big fair like TEFAF, or at one of the top auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, can be expected to provide you with a list of all previous owners. Sometimes known as a provenance chain, the list will indicate where the work has been from its creation to the present, and the dates when it changed hands.
In reality, provenance histories are often incomplete. Ask questions if there is no ownership history between the years 1933 and 1945, if the work changed hands multiple times during that period or if the prewar owners’ names are not listed.
If you are buying at a smaller fair, from an auctioneer or at a flea market, you will likely have to do this work yourself. And even if a lengthy provenance history provides you assurance that the seller has done his or her homework, Ebbinghaus said that it is wise to check this material to verify it for yourself.
Do your research
You can do this using key databases that list missing or stolen art. The Art Loss Register is the largest, with more than 700,000 items that people have listed as missing or stolen. A search on a single artwork costs $100, and yearly subscriptions are available for those aiming to check more items.
The German Lost Art Foundation runs two databases that are useful in provenance research: its Lost Art Database lists 126,000 objects that were seized from Jewish citizens between 1933 and 1945; its Proveana database displays the results of its research projects related to Nazi persecution and theft of Jewish property.
The Commission for Looted Art in Europe in London runs the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945, a website and database, also known as Looted Art, which offers an object search of more than 25,000 pieces.
The ERR Database has an inventory of more than 40,000 art objects taken by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Nazi task force that looted art and archives, then took them to occupied Paris.
And the German Historical Museum in Berlin, a museum devoted to German culture and history that describes provenance research as one of its core tasks, offers three databases focused on Nazi plunder.
If your preliminary research uncovers anything suspicious, alert the seller, said Korner, the TEFAF fairs director. Always keep documentation of your research, because if an unforeseen claim arises in the future, you can demonstrate your due diligence.
“There isn’t a register of all the art on the planet,” Ebbinghaus said. “There are gaps, and as soon as an artwork has a gap in the provenance, there’s a risk that it could be claimed at some point in time.”
On the other hand, she added, the chance is not great: “We check more than 400,000 items a year and less than 1 percent of those turn out to be problematic.”
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