Selected Resources and Bibliography

I. A general reference on provenance and museum provenance research project:

Museum of Fine Art, Boston  https://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance

Freer and Sackler Gallery, National Museum of Asian Art  https://asia.si.edu/collections/provenance-research/

The Getty Research Institute https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/provenance/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art  https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/provenance-research-project

MOMA https://www.moma.org/collection/provenance

Princeton Univesity Art Museum https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/provenance-research

Yeide, Nancy, et al. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums, 2001.

International Foundation for Art Research. “Provenance & Due Diligence,” special double issue of IFAR Journal, Volume 3, nos. 3&4, 2000. [proceedings of an IFAR/NYU conference]


II. Antiquities and Cultural Property Issues 

UNESCO, Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970                                            

New Acquisitions of Archaeological Material and Works of Ancient Art https://aamd.org/object-registry/new-acquisitions-of-archaeological-material-and-works-of-ancient-art/more-info

Strengthened Guidelines on the Acquisition of Archaeological Material and Ancient Art Issued by the Association of Art Museum Directors https://aamd.org/for-the-media/press-release/strengthened-guidelines-on-the-acquisition-of-archaeological-material

Brodie, Neil, Morag Kersel, Christina Luke & Kathryn Walker Tub, eds. Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006.

Conn, Steven. “Where Is the East?: Asian Objects in American Museums, from Nathan Dunn to Charles Freer.” Winterthur Portfolio 35, no. 2/3 (July 1, 2000): 157–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/496822.

Cohen, Warren. East Asian Art and American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Cuno, James. Who Owns Antiquity? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. Darraby, Jessica L. Art, Artifact, Architecture and Museum Law. Eagan, MN: Thomson

Reuters/West, 2008.
Felch, Jason and Ralph Frammolinio. Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities and the

World’s Richest Museum. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.
Gerstenblith, Patty. Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law: Cases and Materials. Durham, NC:

Carolina Academic Press, 2008 (second edition).

Gibbon, Kate Fitz. Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the Law. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.

Hoffman, Barbara T., ed. Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Merryman, John Henry and Stephen K. Urice. Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts, 5th ed. The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International BV, 2007.

Meyer, Karl E., and Shareen Blair Brysac, The China Collectors: America’s Century-long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015) 

Miles, Margaret M. Art as Plunder: The Ancient Origins of Debate about Cultural Property. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

O’Keefe, Patrick J. Trade in Antiquities: Reducing Destruction and Theft. London: UNESCO, 1997. Richman, Jennifer R. and Marion P. Forsyth. Legal Perspectives on Cultural Resources. Lanham,MD: Alta Mira Press, 2004.

Waxman, Sharon. Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World. New York: Times Books, 2008.


III.Looted Artworks During the Nazi Period 

American Alliance of Museums, Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi-Era   https://www.aam-us.org/programs/ethics-standards-and-professional-practices/unlawful-appropriation-of-objects-during-the-nazi-era/

Association of Art Museum Directors, Resolutions of Claims for Nazi-Era Cultural assets https://aamd.org/object-registry/resolution-of-claims-for-nazi-era-cultural-assets/more-info

Cleveland Museum of Art, Nazi-Era Provenance  https://www.clevelandart.org/research/curatorial/nazi-era-provenance

National Archives, Looted Art Bibliography https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/bibliographies/looted-art.html

Bazyler, Michael J. Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America’s Courts. New York: New York University Press, 2003.

Bazyler, Michael J. and Roger P. Alford. Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and its Legacy. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

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

Edsel, Robert M. Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe’s Great Art: America and her Allies Recovered It. Dallas: Laurel Publishing, 2006.

Edsel, Robert M. Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Morozzi, Luisa. Treasures Untraced: An Inventory of the Italian Art Treasures Lost during the Second World War. Rome: Instituto poligrafico e zecca dello stato, 1995.

Müller, Melissa. Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collectors, Nazi Art Theft, and the Quest for Justice. New York: Vendome Press, 2010.

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

Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. The Spoils of War: World War II and its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.

Wechsler, Helen J. Museum Policy and Procedures for Nazi-Era Issues. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums, 2001.

Yeide, Nancy. Vitalizing Memory: International Perspectives on Provenance Research. Washington, D.C:. American Association of Museums, 2005. (proceedings of an AAM conference)


IV.Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)

National Park Service, NAGPRA https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, NAGPRA & Repatriation https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/310

Penn Museum, NAGPRA              https://www.penn.museum/about-collections/statements-and-policies/nagpra-compliance