Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Pre-Columbian "provenances"

Nord Wennerstrom has drawn my attention to the sale of pre-Columbian antiquities where 95% of the objects do not apparently have collecting histories that can be traced back to the period prior to 1970 ("Provenance Puffery at upcoming Pre-Columbian art auction", Nord on Art January 15, 2013). Once again it reminds us of the abuse of the (redundant) word "provenance". When will auction-houses and galleries differentiate between the archaeological information and the collecting history?

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Francavilla Marittima and the links to Switzerland

Fragment of plate formerly in the Michael C. Carlos Museum In 1979 the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired ‘a large collection of fragments of Cor...