Provenance Research Day at the SPK: Virtual exhibition and online event with provenance researchers
Press release from 04/13/2021
The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin will once again be taking part in the third International Day of Provenance Research on 14 April - with a virtual exhibition, a digital discussion with provenance researchers and new content on the websites.
The virtual exhibition "Spotlight on the Object | LEUTE - ORTE - DINGE" shows tricky and sensitive examples of provenance research. Based on twenty objects researched at the Staatsbibliothek and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the diversity of the discipline and the topics researched are presented. In addition to the objects, the people and places associated with them will also be highlighted, and visitors will be able to look over the shoulders of provenance researchers as they interpret often inconspicuous traces.
Under the hashtag #FragtDieProvenienzForscher_innen, provenance researchers from the Central Archive of the National Museums in Berlin will discuss the diverse perspectives, methods and challenges of their fields of research on 14 April from 6 to 7 pm: colonial contexts, cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution and archaeological objects. Questions can also be asked in advance via the Twitter account.
Registration for the WebEx event via e-mail
Panelists: Julia Binter, Sven Haase, Brigit Sporleder
Moderation: Anna Schäfers
Further information can be found on the websites of both organisations: In the "Biographies of Objects" series of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin blog, for example, a recent text looks at the provenance of the famous outrigger boat from the Pacific island of Luf; another is dedicated to provenance research on Asian art.
The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin is presenting its wide-ranging commitment to provenance research in a completely new web portal, for which not only has the content been redesigned to be more user-friendly, but which also offers a significantly expanded range of information.
New digital provenance research project at the Numismatic Collection: Sellers and previous owners between 1933 and 1945
Since February 2021, the Coin Cabinet of the National Museums in Berlin has been identifying all previous owners and sellers of objects to the museum during the National Socialist era and creating standardised data on them in a one-year project funded by the BKM. This information is publicly available and, where possible, linked to international and national standardised data portals. In this way, information can be added across collections and it can be determined whether names appear in different collections and networks become visible. The project is also a pilot study for the digital provenance research working group led by Prof. Dr Meike Hopp (TU Berlin) in connection with the creation of a national research data infrastructure.
Further information on provenance research at the SPK
- Provenance research and ownership issues at the SPK
- Provenance research at the National Museums in Berlin
- Provenance research at the Berlin State Library
- Articles on provenance research in the blog of the National Museums in Berlin
- Offers for the 3rd Day of Provenance Research
The Provenance Research Day is an initiative of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V., an international network of scholars and experts who have been researching the provenance or unlawful seizure of cultural property since 2000. The hashtag #TagderProvenienzforschung accompanies the day of action on Twitter.