Provenance

[1] The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art,[citation needed] but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, paleontology, archival science, economy, computing, and scientific inquiry in general.

The primary purpose of tracing the provenance of an object or entity is normally to provide contextual and circumstantial evidence for its original production or discovery, by establishing, as far as practicable, its later history, especially the sequences of its formal ownership, custody and places of storage.

Comparative techniques, expert opinions and the results of scientific tests may also be used to these ends, but establishing provenance is essentially a matter of documentation.

These issues first became a major concern regarding works that had changed hands in Nazi-controlled areas in Europe before and during World War II.

Recently the same concerns have come to prominence for works of African art, often exported illegally, and antiquities from many parts of the world, but currently especially in Iraq, and then Syria.

[2] In archaeology and paleontology, the derived term provenience is used with a related but very particular meaning, to refer to the location (in modern research, recorded precisely in three dimensions) where an artifact or other ancient item was found.

[4] Documented evidence of provenance for an object can help to establish that it has not been altered and is not a forgery, a reproduction, stolen or looted art.

The quality of provenance of an important work of art can make a considerable difference to its selling price in the market.

This is affected by the degree of certainty of the provenance, the status of past owners as collectors, and in many cases by the strength of evidence that an object has not been illegally excavated or exported from another country.

The provenance of a work of art may vary greatly in length, depending on context or the amount that is known, from a single name to an entry in a scholarly catalogue some thousands of words long.

John Drewe was able to pass off as genuine paintings, a large number of forgeries that would have easily been recognised as such by scientific examination.

[7] The objective of provenance research is to produce a complete list of owners (together, where possible, with the supporting documentary proof) from when the painting was commissioned or in the artist's studio through to the present time.

the provenance of the painting Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil was investigated using a gallery sticker and shipping label on the back.

Early provenance can sometimes be indicated by a cartellino, a trompe-l'œil representation of an inscribed label, added to the front of a painting.

One of the disputed aspects of the "Rice" portrait of Jane Austen concerns apparent inscriptions identifying artist and sitter.

[18] Seamus Ross has argued a case for adapting established principles and theories of archival provenance to the field of modern digital preservation and curation.

[21][22] Provenance studies may shed light on the books themselves, providing evidence of the role particular titles have played in social, intellectual and literary history.

Many provenance studies are historically focused, and concentrated on books owned by writers, politicians and public figures.

For a piano, provenance can be established by starting with the authentication of the brand of manufacture and serial number, which will usually identify age.

For example, Karen Earle Lile niece of Tony Terran and Kendall Ross Bean, members of the Preservations Artisans Guild,[33] were chosen [34] by Mercersburg Academy to research and authenticate the provenance of the Lennon-Ono-Green-Warhol piano before it was put up for sale to fund a Deed of Trust by the Shaool Family to Mercersburg Academy for future student scholarships.

[41] Recent technology developments have aided collectors in assessing the temperature and humidity history of the wine which are two key components in establishing perfect provenance.

These devices track the conditions the case has been exposed to for the duration of the battery life, which can be as long as 15 years, and sends a graph and high/low readings to the smartphone user.

Archaeology and anthropology researchers use provenience to refer to the exact location or find spot of an artifact, a bone or other remains, a soil sample, or a feature within an ancient site,[3] whereas provenance covers an object's complete documented history.

In older work, often undertaken by amateurs, only the general site or approximate area may be known, especially when an artifact was found outside a professional excavation and its specific position not recorded.

Aside from scientific precision, a need for the distinction in these fields has been described thus:[43] Archaeologists ... don't care who owned an object—they are more interested in the context of an object within the community of its (mostly original) users.

For example, a short glossary at a website, primarily aimed at young students, of the American Museum of Natural History treats the terms as synonymous,[44] while scholarly paleontology works make frequent use of provenience in the same precise sense as used in archaeology and paleoanthropology.

While exacting details of a find's provenience are primarily of use to scientific researchers, most natural history and archaeology museums also make strenuous efforts to record how the items in their collections were acquired.

[45][46] Scientific workflow systems assist scientists and programmers with tracking their data through all transformations, analyses, and interpretations.

[49] Some international academic consortia, such as the Research Data Alliance, have specific groups to tackle issues of provenance.

[63] Operating system level provenance have gained interest in the security community notably to develop novel intrusion detection techniques.