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Provenance Research Statement

A core activity of all art museums is the full documentation of the works of art under their stewardship. This documentation includes complete records of exhibition and publication, physical condition, and provenance (ownership history). The goal of provenance research is to trace the history of ownership of a work of art from the time of its creation to the present day. This research can be very complex, presenting multiple challenges to researchers, who are faced with issues including language, changes in attribution and title, physical alteration, the transitory nature or absence of records, ambiguities of family and corporate histories, societal and political upheaval, natural disaster, and, quite simply, the passage of time. In provenance research, gaps are common; these gaps become particularly problematic when concurrent with troubling historical and social circumstances.

SDMA has focused its current provenance research on objects in its collection acquired after 1932 and created before 1946 that changed ownership between 1932 and 1946, and were likely to have been in continental Europe between these dates. These dates correspond to the period of the rise to power of the Nazi party in Germany until its fall at the end of World War II. This research is in accordance with the Report of the AAMD Task Force on the Spoliation of Art during the Nazi/World War II Era (1933-1945), issued by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) in June 1998; Guidelines Concerning the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects during the Nazi Era, adopted by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in November 1999; Plunder and Restitution: The U.S. and Holocaust Victims' Assets—Findings and Recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and Staff Report (PCHA) issued in January 2001, and amendments by both AAMD and AAM in April and May 2001, respectively.

Since these reports, there has been heightened awareness of the impact of Nazi Germany on the cultural heritage of Europe. From the time the Nazi regime came into power in 1933 through the end of the war in 1945, they systematically looted works of art and other cultural property in Europe on a massive scale. Millions of objects were unethically or unlawfully acquired—often by theft, force, or coercion—from their rightful owners, who included private citizens, victims of the Holocaust, public and private museums and galleries, and religious, educational, and other institutions. Such events as the fall of the Soviet Union and the re-unification of Germany in the early 1990s have made available for the first time significant new information on the Nazi/WWII era; the Internet has made this information accessible in an unprecedented manner.

The following list, which will be updated as research continues, presents covered objects in the SDMA collection. The AAM Recommended Procedures for Providing Information to the Public about Objects Transferred in Europe during the Nazi Era (May 2001) defines a covered object as an object created before 1946 and acquired by a museum after 1932, that underwent a change of ownership between 1932 and 1946, and that was or might reasonably be thought to have been in continental Europe between those dates.

It has been agreed by AAM, AAMD, and PCHA that the initial focus of provenance research and online postings be European paintings and Judaica. SDMA has no Judaica in its collection and approximately 250 European paintings that fit the criteria as covered objects. The provenance of each of these paintings is being scrutinized and researched in an attempt to account for all gaps and to determine whether they were wrongfully appropriated during the Nazi/World War II era without subsequent restitution. Research priority is given to: works that changed hands in Germany or a Nazi-occupied country; works that have gaps in provenance; or works that can be associated with known looted collections or traffickers in looted or illicitly transferred art during the Nazi/World War II era. These latter names are published in the Commission for Art Recovery's Provisional List of Names Mentioned in Relation to Art Looting during the Holocaust Era, the Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report, and other sources. Inclusion on the provenance research list does not necessarily indicate the painting was either looted or illegally transferred.

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Covered Objects

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Italian (Roman), 1708-1787
Cardinal Etienne-René Potier de Gesvres, 1758
Oil on canvas
38 7/8 x 29 in. (98.7 x 73.7 cm)
Museum purchase, 1983:7
Click here for more information

Bernardo Bellotto, Italian (Venetian), 1721-1780
Architectural Capriccio with a Baroque Palace Beside a Moat, ca. 1765
Oil on canvas
19 x 31 3/8 in. (48.3 x 79.7 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1949:68
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Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), Italian (Venetian),1697-1768
The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco, Venice, 1747-58
Oil on canvas
33 5/8 x 52 7/8 in. (85.5 x 134.2 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1942:132
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Attributed to the school of Piero di Cosimo, Italian (Florentine), ca. 1462-after 1521
Virgin and Child with Saint John and Four Angels, undated
Oil on panel
37 1/2 x 37 9/16 in. (95.3 x 95.4 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1950:90
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Honor� Daumier
Leaving the Theater
ca. 1865
Museum purchase through the Earle W. Grant Acquisition Fund
1972:186
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Frans Hals, Dutch, 1582/83-1666
Portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz Massa, ca. 1635
Oil on panel
8 3/8 x 7 3/4 in. (21.3 x 19.7 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1946:74
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Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, 1577-1640
Allegory of Eternity, ca. 1625-1630
Oil on panel
26 x 13 1/2 in. (66 x 34.3 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1947; funds for Nazi-era restitution settlement provided by the estate of Walter Fitch III, 2004.
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Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Netherlandish, 15th century
Deposition, ca. 1460
Oil on panel
25 1/6 x 16 7/8 in. (63.7 x 42.9 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1942:131
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Artist unknown, Netherlandish (Bruges), 15th century
Portrait of a Man at Prayer, ca. 1480-90
Oil on panel
12 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (30.6 x 21 cm)
Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam, 1947:1
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Whom to Contact with Information or Questions
Provenance Research
San Diego Museum of Art
P.O. Box 122107
San Diego, CA 92112-2107.

Related Links

• American Association of Museums (AAM) www.aam-us.org
• Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) www.aamd.org
• Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States www.pcha.gov
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) www.archives.gov
• Art Loss Register www.artloss.com
• International Foundation for Art Recovery (IFAR) www.ifar.org
• Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal www.nepip.org
  The Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal provides a searchable registry of objects in U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Nazi era (1933-1945).

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