How to Track the Falsification of Provenance?

*** see new 2023 video from the Knowledge Graph Conference ***

False provenance is a feature of Nazi looted art. How to track multiple versions of provenance texts over time and identify, classify and analyse "errors"? 

We begin by listing some of the most frequently observed "errors".

Types of "errors" observed in provenance texts of Nazi looted art, forced sales and duress sales:

Provenance Error Type	Description
NameOmitted	real owner name omitted
NameAdded	fake owner name inserted
WrongDate	incorrect date
WrongPlace	incorrect place
WrongSeller	incorrect identification of seller
WrongBuyer	incorrection identification of buyer
WrongDealer	incorrect identification of the dealer or intermediary
WrongTransaction	incorrect representation of the nature of the transaction
WrongStory	incorrect represention of the sequence of events
NameMispelled	mispelled name
Other	other

Who authored and published the errors? Who financed the research and publication? When? In what context? These elements can be described in the metadata of the provenance text.

Provenance text metadata suggestions

Provenance Text Metadata	Description
Publisher	Name and URI of the person or organisation that published the provenance text
Type of publication	book, article, catalogue raisonné, website, other
Publication	Title, identifier
Author	Name and identifier of the individual who wrote the provenance (or if this is not available, the insitution)
Payer	Name and identifier of whoever ordered or paid for the writing of the provenance
Date of publication	Date the version was published
Version	a number indication the version of the provenance
URL to Provenance Text	If published online, the url
Archived URL	URL to the provenance version on a specific date (important because online provenance changes)
Archive date	Date of the archived URL
Artwork the provenance describes	Title and identifiers for the artwork described (url, accession number)
Noteworthycircumstances	significant events that may help explain the particularities of the version
Known to contain errors	Y/N (if yes, refer to error type)
Other

A look at sources

Provenances cite source documents. Who wrote the sources cited? Who published them, when - and why? What new information did they introduce? Have any problems of accuracy already been identified in the source document?
One cannot assess the reliability of a provenance text without verifying the reliability of the sources it cites.

Provenance Source Cited Metadata Suggestions

Provenance Source Metadata	Description
Date source cited was published	Original publication date of the source cited
Author of source cited	Author of the source cited.
Publisher of source cited	Name and ID of the publisher of the source cited.
Reliability of source cited	Have any false provenances been found in the source cited?
New information introduced by source cited	Did the source cited introduce a new name, date, place, explanation? Which?
First citation of source cited	Name and ID of the first publication to cite the source cited
Payer of source cited	Name and ID of the person or organization that financed the publication of the source cited
Uncertainty of source cited	Does the footnote refering to the source cited contain a ? or words like probably, likely, possibly indicating uncertainty or speculation?
Contemporaneous?	Y/N
Red Flag on Author or Publisher?	Y/N Is the author, publisher or payer of the source publication on the ALIU Red Flag list of Names from 1946?
Holocaust Claim?	Y/N Does the name of the author, publisher or payer appear in any legal documents connected to a Holocaust art claim?

What has already been done in tracking provenance errors? How can these be coded? Provenance errors, like potato chips, rarely stop at just one.
To be continued....

photo by Evan-Amos / Public domain

American Museums with no artworks to declare on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal

NEPIP: The following museums declare that they have No Relevant Objects

"List of U.S. Museums That Hold No Relevant Objects"

Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Inc., Boca Raton, FL
Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA
Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Krasl Art Center, Saint Joseph, MI
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, St. Petersburg College, Tarpon Springs, FL
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH
Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, KS
Museum of Art of Ft Lauderdale, Ft Lauderdale, FL
Museum of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL
National Academy Museum, New York, NY
Orland Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

(source: NEPIP on October 16, 2019 from the American Alliance of Museums NEPIP website at url http://www.nepip.org/public/info/nocov.cfm?&menu_type=info )

What does it mean to find Cailleux in art provenance research?

Sleep
Jean Bernard Restout
c. 1771
Cleveland Museum of Art
http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.502

What does it mean to find the name "Cailleux" in a Nazi-era provenance, an artwork listed by a museum on NEPIP (the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal) or an artwork whose provenance shows a gap or uncertainty for the years 1933-1945?

In this series of posts, we will explore the name "Cailleux" where it appears in art provenances throughout the world.

Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art Provenance Information AccessTest

How accessible is provenance information on museum websites?

In this Video ArtDataTests looks at NEPIP and FRED JONES JR MUSEUM OF ART to see whether the provenance for items listed on the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal for the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art is accessible.

Test script
1. Go to the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal (NEPIP), search for Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art
2. Test link to museum (ERROR)
3. View artworks listed in NEPIP for the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art
4. Scroll through the list to find an artwork with an artist other than "Anonymous", click on Maurice de Vlaminck 
5. Click on "more information" to view Accession Number
6. Copy Accession Number
7. Go to Google, enter Search Collections Fred Jones
8. Click on Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art site
9. Look for Collections Search
10. In the absence of a Collections Search function, click on European Art and scroll down list until Vlaminck found (note that the title displayed is not the same as in NEPIP)
11. Click on painting and view item record to verify whether the provenance is visible (It is not. Neither is the accession number)
12. Click on next Vlaminck
Video: https://youtu.be/K1xRjv707E4

Test Result: No search on provenance information. No display of provenance information.