A Krater from a Swiss Private Collection

It is interesting to see how academics, museums, auction-houses and dealers present (or obscure) information. Can Swiss "private collection" in fact mean no more than "once dealer's stock in the Geneva Freeport"? Or could it mean "once stored in a warehouse in Basel"? Or is it genuinely the once cherished piece from the collection of a pot-loving Swiss private collector who values his or her anonymity?

What do such anonymous private collections hide? Where is the transparency?

And do museum curators try to investigate such anonymous "collectors"? Or do they take the information on trust?

What does it say about the "due diligence" process?

Do museums investigate when questions are raised?

Image
Detail of an Attic volute-krater showing a Dionysiac scene once in a Swiss "private collection" and featured in the Symes Dossier seized on Schinoussa (courtesy of Christos Tsirogiannis).