Provenance is the historical ownership of an artwork, beginning with its creator and extending to the present day. Information about provenance can come from a wide variety of sources, including numbers and stamps on an artwork itself, collection inventories, auction sale catalogues, and historical descriptions. Provenance can help art historians better understand an object’s path through time, its uses and functions, and its cultural context. In some cases, provenance research can also help reveal when an object changed ownership due to theft or plunder. Learn more about the Kemper Art Museum's provenance efforts below. 

The period between Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the end of World War II (1933–1945) is given special consideration in provenance research. Under Nazi rule, hundreds of thousands of art objects were taken from their rightful owners through confiscation, destruction, and coerced sale. Many objects have yet to be recovered, making provenance research for this period especially important. The Kemper Art Museum is dedicated to researching objects in its collection whose ownership history is unconfirmed during this period. In 1998 the Washington Principles—a set of eleven principles to guide research and restitution—were published, signifying a renewed international interest in accounting for lost and stolen artworks. In March of 2024, a new set of best practices regarding the Washington Principles was approved.

A list of paintings in the Kemper Art Museum's collection that could have been sold or changed hands in Europe between 1933 and 1945 is available here. Curators and staff at the Kemper Art Museum are conducting ongoing research to learn more about the provenance of these works. It is important to note that objects on this list are not assumed to have been looted during the Nazi era or to have changed hands illegally. 

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was first passed in 1990 and most recently updated in 2023. NAGPRA requires that museums actively consult with Indigenous communities and repatriate ancestral remains, funerary objects, and certain items of cultural patrimony. Curators at the Kemper Art Museum are in the process of reaching out to Indigenous communities about objects in the Museum’s collection.

A list of Indigenous art objects in the Kemper Art Museum's collection is available here. If you have NAGPRA related inquiries or feedback, please email Dana Ostrander, assistant curator, at danao@wustl.edu. 

The Kemper Art Museum’s small but important collection of antiquities includes most notably two Egyptian mummies   and approximately thirty ancient Greek vases and other vessels. The Museum follows both US law and professional guidelines in recognizing the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import and Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Additionally, the Museum does not knowingly accept works of art that have been imported to the US in violation of laws of the countries of origin or objects that have been forged or stolen from their rightful owners.

The provenance history of an artwork in the Kemper Art Museum’s collection can be viewed on the artwork's Collection page under the Provenance tab. The provenance history is formatted as a list, starting with the earliest known owner and ending with the Museum. If the owner is a gallery, dealer, or auction house, their entry is enclosed in square brackets. Footnotes   accompany each entry to cite sources and provide contextual information where applicable. Each entry in a provenance history is written in the following format: 

Start date–end date

Constituent name (life/operational dates), Location when known, Relation to previous owner if applicable, Acquisition method [1]

[1] Note

The Kemper Art Museum is actively researching the provenance of its collections both to gain a deeper understanding of its collection’s history and to ensure that the Museum follows ethical collecting practices. Provenance research is a gradual and ongoing process; an object’s complete provenance is not always possible due to missing information or documentation. We will continuously update the Museum’s website with detailed provenance histories as our research progresses. 

If you have provenance-related inquiries or information, please contact Elizabeth Mangone, curatorial research assistant, at e.mangone@wustl.edu.

Research Guides:

Schuhmacher, Jacques. Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections: A Research Guide.  UCL Press, 2024. Available as an open access pdf. 

Tompkins, Arthur, ed. Provenance Research Today: Principles, Practice, Problems. Lund Humphries, 2020.

Yeide, Nancy H., Amy Walsh, and Konstantin Akinsha. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. American Alliance of Museums, 2001.

The Nazi Era:

Campbell, Elizabeth. Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy. Stanford University Press, 2011.

Campbell, Elizabeth. Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe. Oxford University Press, 2024.

Edsel, Robert M. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. Center Street, 2009. 

Goodman, Simon. The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis. Scribner, 2016. 

Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

O'Donnell, Nicholas M. A Tragic Fate: Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art. Chicago: American Bar Association, 2017. 

Indigenous Art and Cultural Heritage:

Chari, Sangita, and Jaime M. N. Lavallee, eds. Accomplishing NAGPRA: Perspectives on the Intent, Impact, and Future of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Oregon State University Press, 2013. 

Colwell, Chip. Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2017. 

Morgan, Rachel. Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press, 2023. 

General:

Feigenbaum, Gail, and Inge Reist, eds. Provenance: An Alternate History of Art. Getty Publications, 2013.

Francini, Esther Tisa, and Sarah Csernay, eds. Pathways of Art: How Objects Get to the Museum. Scheidegger and Spiess, 2022.

Milosch, Jane, and Nick Pearce, eds. Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplanary Approach. Rowan & Littlefield, 2019.