The Aam Guide To Provenance Research

"The AAM Guide to Provenance Research is a much-needed contribution for scholars, professional researchers, and those who shape policy. Here in one volume is a historical overview, description of current methodology, invaluable indices, inventories, and lists of current databases-in-progress." -- Back cover.

Based on proceedings from AAM's 2004 International Provenance Research Colloquium, this book highlights the significant strides in provenance research resources and methodology, and also illuminates the number of different sources, many of them little known to North American researchers, that may have to be consulted to clarify the provenance of any one object.

Since the first edition was published in 1958, Museum Registration Methods has defined the profession and served as a fundamental reference for all aspects of collections registration, care, and management. The sixth edition of Museum Registration Methods is a comprehensive guide to registration and collections management for museums, from acquisition to use and deaccessioning. The authors and other contributors come from a wide variety of museums and specializations. The 56 chapters in this edition are either new or updated, and include the history of the profession, the role of the registrar in the museum, managing very large collections, developing and implementing collection management policies, documentation of collections, accessioning, condition reports, deaccessioning, repositories, and provenance research. Contemporary and digital art, living and natural history collections, loans, exhibitions, found-in-collection objects, shipping, records management, and electronic data management are also addressed, along with object handling and numbering, digitization, condition reporting, preventive care, storage on and off-site, inventory, moving and packing, shipping nationally and internationally, couriering, risk assessment, security, insurance, integrated pest management, ethics, sustainability, sacred and culturally sensitive objects, intellectual property rights, appraisal, ethical and legal issues, and research. The book includes a comprehensive resource list, glossary, hypothetical situations to ponder, and model collection forms.

Museums are multifaceted institutions that reach across all disciplines and encounter a complex range of legal questions. Experts in museum and art law join forces in this essay-format volume. These unique, nonprofit cultural organizations face a myriad of legal concerns as they launch into the twenty-first century and will continue to require specific guidance. From intellectual property law to navigating waters of social media, de-accessioning concerns to governance law, copyright, and rights and reproduction questions to issues of public domain and public trust, The Legal Guide for Museum Professionals seeks to provide answers and courses of action for museums of all disciplines. This book will assist professionals in determining when to seek professional legal counsel and when to educate themselves and proceed on their own. The book was inspired by a panel of experts who have presented at numerous regional and national conferences for museum professionals are especially practiced at providing insight into current legal concerns, including: Gil Whittemore Esq. of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, P.C. and former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Museum Law Committee; Katherine E. Lewis Esq. Chair of the American Bar Association’s Museum Law Committee and practicing New York attorney; Mark S. Gold Esq. practicing attorney in Williamstown, MA with the firm of Parese, Sabin, Smith & Gold LLP who has written and edited extensively on all aspects of museum and art law. All three contributed to this volume.

The study of provenance—the history of the creation and ownership of an artefact, work of art, or specimen—provides insights into the history of taste and collecting, illuminating the social, economic, and historic trends in which an object was created and collected. It is as much a history of people as it is of objects, and its study often reveals intricate networks of relationships, patterns of activity and motivations. This book promotes the study of the history of collecting and collections in all their variety through the lens of provenance, and explores the subject as a cross-disciplinary activity. Perhaps for the first time in a publication, it draws on expertise ranging from art history and anthropology, to natural history and law, looking at periods from antiquity through the 18th century and the Holocaust era to the present, and materials from Europe and the Americas to China and the Pacific. The issues raised are wide-ranging, touching on aspects of authenticity, cultural meaning and material transformation and economic and commercial drivers, as well as collector and object biography. The book fills a gap in the study of collecting and provenance, taking the subject holistically and from multiple standpoints, better to reflect the widening interest in provenance from a range of disciplinary perspectives. This book will be a service to the field, from established scholars and museum professionals to students of collecting history, cultural heritage, and museum studies.

When we look at the artworks on display in museums, there is always a real possibility that some of these objects once belonged to victims of the Nazis – a possibility that has remained unacknowledged for far too long. Countless artworks were seized or forcibly sold, with many ending up in museum collections around the world, even in countries which actively fought to defeat Nazi Germany. Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections equips readers with the knowledge and strategies essential for confronting the shadow of the Nazi past in museum collections. Jacques Schuhmacher provides the vital historical orientation required to understand the Nazis’ complex campaign of systematic dispossession and extermination, and highlights the current environment in which museum-based Nazi-era provenance research takes place. This book introduces readers to the research methods and resources that can be used to reveal the moving stories behind the objects, highlighting the absorbing work of provenance researchers as it plays out in practice. Provenance research not only seeks to recover erased names and experiences and to reinsert them into a historical record, but also to ensure that the Nazis’ actions and worldview do not remain unchallenged in the galleries and storerooms of our museums today. Praise for Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections ‘Jacques Schuhmacher has written a hugely powerful, instructive and important book, tracing the historic responsibility of the museum world in addressing the legacy of Nazi-era loot. Fluently combining extensive historical scholarship with his expert understanding of investigative tools, this study uses compelling examples of restitution cases to show how provenance research should be done and, crucially, why it must be done.’ Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A ‘A timely work drawing upon first-hand experience in Nazi-era provenance research, providing a unique insight into the difficulties thrown up by the period. This book is sure to become a point of reference for those working in the field.’ His Honour Judge Baumgartner, Deputy Chair, UK Spoliation Advisory Panel ‘It is crucially important that we continue researching the history of ownership of our museum collections. Only then can historic wrongs begin to be rectified. By providing both a broad overview and individual case studies, Schuhmacher offers invaluable guidance on the complexities of Nazi-era provenance research’. Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery ‘A timely and user-friendly addition to the Provenance literature. Schuhmacher provides a how-to manual (complete with website addresses) and a much-needed clarification of immediate post-war restitution efforts. A must-have for all museum and art-world professionals.’ Lynn H. Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War ‘Allowing readers to understand the complex world of Nazi-era provenance research, this book is both a guide and a moving work of research in its own right. Jacques Schuhmacher is uniquely placed to write this book and to further the goal of material restitution.’ Professor Dan Stone, Director of the Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway University of London ‘This is the place to start for anyone wanting to know about provenance research into looted Nazi-era works of art, or wanting to do the research themselves.’ Lord Inglewood, Chairman of the UK Advisory Group on Spoliation Matters