So what is provenance? The provenance of a work of art is its history of ownership. Beginning with their creation, artworks have a life and their provenance is their biography. While good pedigree and association with historical figures might add to the market value of an artwork, provenance research is crucial for ensuring its authenticity and proper attribution. Furthermore, provenance research is essential for legal and ethical reasons. While gaps in provenance are normal especially for artworks that were created centuries ago, some gaps can reveal possible theft and illegal transactions. With increasing awareness of looted antiquities and cultural properties, artworks removed from their place of origin during colonial rule and beyond, and confiscated artworks during the Nazi era, scholars and curators have paid more and more attention to both the study of the objects themselves and their movement through time and space.

The research of provenance requires lots of patience, as it might take a while for sellers or auction houses to respond. Sometimes there might not be any identifiable seller, such as the cases in which the artwork was acquired haphazardly during travel in another country or in which the gallery already closed many years ago. But even in these cases progress can still be made. For example (a very lucky one), a pair of Western Han kneeling figure from the Reid Collection was acquired through a gallery in the UK about twenty years ago. On the first attempt, I could not find any information regarding the gallery, not even by Google mapping its location found on a receipt. I was only able to identify the name of the gallery owner through an editorial article in the Arts of Asia magazine that mentioned the gallery in one sentence. Then by tracing this gallerist name, I found the gallery he is now running.

For more resources and guidelines on the provenance research, please check out the selected bibliographies.