Signs that provenance research has gone off the rails include:
- extremely long texts that leave the reader so confused that he/she concludes that there is no such thing as knowledge
- massive use of words indicating uncertainty or unknowability
- omission of crucial information that is available and which provides important context
- mention of names which are known to be either persecuted Jewish collectors, Red Flag dealers of Nazi looted art, or associates with forgers WITHOUT mentioning that that's who they are
- excessive speculation
- false information
In this series of posts, we will examine a few remarkable examples of needlessly confusing provenance texts published by major museums.