The Art Institute’s wide-ranging collection is a testament to thousands of years of human creativity and artistic expression—from ancient Chinese bronzes to contemporary art and from tapestries to photography. Every object in our collection has its own unique story to tell.
By asking who owned or cared for these objects in the past (their “provenance”), we strive to deepen our understanding of the artworks, the people who valued them, and the societies these objects inhabited as they traveled through time and from place to place. In other words, provenance research allows us to look beyond the objects’ surface and to tell a fuller story.
If you would like to learn more about the fascinating insights that can be gained from exploring the lives of objects, these books provide an excellent starting point:
The Art Institute of Chicago’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries also hold a wealth of other provenance-related publications, which can be explored through the online catalog.
Provenance Research at the Art Institute
The aim of provenance research is to trace the history of an object from the time it leaves the artist or maker’s hands to its arrival at the Art Institute: Where and when was it first acquired? Who owned it next? For how long? Why and how did the object leave each owner’s care?
This information provides a more comprehensive understanding of an object’s history and becomes a foundation upon which our curators build their scholarship. It even informs the way in which the museum talks about objects in our exhibitions, gallery labels, and tours.
Sharing provenance in this way enables visitors and researchers to connect with the stories contained within our collection.
Provenance research is central to museum practice: acquisitions, exhibitions, loans, and even artworks leaving our collection. Crucially, it also ensures the ethical stewardship of the objects in our care.
Learn more about the museum’s history and our collection policies, and be sure to check out these articles that highlight how our collection has evolved since our founding in 1879.
Researching the Lives of Objects
In museums, provenance research typically starts with a careful review of archival documents. At the Art Institute, this involves research into the files of both the curatorial departments and the institutional archives. The Art Institute archive provides finding aids that can be accessed online.
Although these records tell us from whom the Art Institute acquired an object, they do not always reveal their full collecting history. In the past, museum curators were naturally interested in the provenance of the objects that they added to the collection, but their focus was predominantly on notable collectors and dealers. Their goal was often to establish the “career highlights” of a particular work of art, rather than to reconstruct its full biography.
Today, we seek to fill in all the blanks in order to establish a provenance record that is as accurate and complete as possible.
While the archival records can provide a valuable starting point for this research, the objects themselves can also carry important research clues—such as labels or stamps applied by previous owners to the reverse of a painting or the plinth of a sculpture. Research also involves a careful review of scholarly literature and other relevant publications, such as auction catalogs or online databases. The Art Institute’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries provide a wealth of provenance-related resources, including access to specialized research tools.
Although the museum’s provenance research always starts in Chicago, it can lead us to archives all over the world—including in those countries where the objects were made, owned, or traded before they arrived at the museum. As such, provenance research is often only possible through collaboration and exchange with other museums and the wider research community. We are extremely grateful when researchers contact us with new information about the objects in our care. We are eager to help facilitate research into the collection and to learn more about the collectors and dealers who helped shape it.
Learn more about how provenance research unfolds at the Art Institute.
Making Sense of Provenance Statements
The Art Institute’s online collection is often the best starting point for a journey into provenance research. Along with photographs and descriptions of objects, many records contain provenance statements.
At first glance, these statements can sometimes feel like a confusing string of names, dates, and locations. But, when decoded, they reveal exciting histories about an object’s life and the people who have cared for it. Our colleagues at the Denver Art Museum have developed an incredibly useful guide to deconstructing such provenance statements.
While not every object in our collection has a provenance narrative published online yet, research on our collection continues, and new records are published continuously.
Meet the Team
The Art Institute’s provenance research team investigates the history of the objects in the collection.
Together, we strive to trace the origins and journeys of objects, enriching our understanding of their cultural significance and historical contexts. The provenance team is always delighted to share its research at conferences, study days, workshops, or lectures.
Dr. Jacques Schuhmacher, executive director, provenance research, leads the provenance team’s research projects across the entire collection. He is the author of Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections: A Research Guide (University College London Press, 2024).
Amanda Block, director, curatorial documentation and research, oversees the museum’s scholarly documentation and cataloging initiatives.
Meadhbh Ginnane, senior research associate, conducts provenance research in all areas of the collection in collaboration with the museum’s 11 curatorial departments.
Dr. Nicolas Revire, Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Postdoctoral Fellow, applies his extensive expertise in Southeast Asian art history to the provenance and provenience research of key objects in the collection. His publications include Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology (2014) and Decoding Southeast Asian Art: Studies in Honor of Piriya Krairiksh (2022).
Getting in Touch with Us
If you are hoping to conduct provenance research on your own, we encourage you to explore the resources and databases that are available through our Research Center.
If you have questions about objects in the Art Institute’s collection, or if you have information that you would like to share with us, we encourage you to reach out to us at provenance@artic.edu.
We are always delighted to receive information and outreach about our collection.
