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Continuation of the collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and SPK in the field of provenance research
Press release from 02/20/2025
Creating structures for a young field of research - sharing knowledge worldwide. Collaboration, innovation and sustainability are at the centre of the renewed partnership for provenance research on Asian art
The National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) in Washington D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin of the SPK are expanding their collaboration on provenance research into Asian art. Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, and Chase F. Robinson, Director of the NMAA, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to this effect at the beginning of January. The focus is now on establishing permanent structures for sharing knowledge, after experts in the field of provenance research on Asian art have been networking worldwide in recent years.
Since 2020, the partnership has reached over 2,000 interested parties from five continents with its webinar series "Hidden Networks: The Trade of Asian Art". The symposium "Provenance of Asian Art: A Collaborative Workshop and Symposium" brought together more than 150 participants from 40 institutions and 17 countries in 2023. This global network is now to be further strengthened by creating permanent exchange structures. To this end, a new webinar series on the topic of "Unpacking Provenance", a symposium on the topic of "Sharing" and the realisation of a study for the creation of a digital exchange platform are planned. In the first webinar of the six-part series on 22 January 2025, a group of four experts will focus on a Chinese porcelain bowl from the collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The three-day international symposium will bring together scholars, curators and archivists in Berlin in autumn 2026 to exchange materials,
share research findings and strengthen cooperation networks. The theme of "Sharing" will take centre stage. The third aspect of the cooperation, the evaluation of the possibilities for developing a multilingual digital platform for provenance research, also follows this approach. Such a tool would simplify access to scattered archive material and increase the efficiency of provenance studies. The results will be published in a white paper.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, explains: "The topic of provenance research is of equal concern to institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. The fact that the SPK and the Smithsonian Institute play a pioneering role in this field is not least due to their importance in an international context - both institutions are the largest museum and research complexes in the world. Five years after our initial Memorandum of Understanding and the multi-day symposium on provenance research in Washington in late 2023, Smithsonian and SPK are now expanding their forward-looking collaboration to advance provenance research on Asian art."
"Our partnership with SPK represents a strong international commitment to promoting ethical and transparent practices in the study of Asian art," said Chase F. Robinson, director of the NMAA. "In our first phase of collaboration, we have successfully brought together a global network of provenance researchers. The next phase will strengthen this community, foster collaboration, and create innovative tools such as a digital platform that will help researchers work more effectively and efficiently to ensure a lasting impact on the field."
Christine Howald, Deputy Director of the Central Archive of the National Museums in Berlin and project leader on the German side, explains: "Effective and sustainable provenance research cannot be carried out in isolation, it needs the knowledge of many knowledge carriers in order to be able to comprehensively research the translocations of the objects, but also to sound out the moral and ethical positions of all interest groups. With our cooperation, we want to make this possible in the field of Asian art and also make knowledge accessible in the long term. In this way, we are not only promoting global discourse on the translocation of objects, but also contributing to a change in Western museum practices."
"As the first full-time provenance researcher and object historian for the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, I have experienced first-hand how this collaboration has elevated the field of provenance research," explains Joanna Gohmann, Associate Curator of Provenance & Object Histories at the National Museum of Asian Art. "This renewed MOU represents a significant step forward and shifts our focus from building a community to strengthening it with innovative tools and methods that will shape the future of provenance research and ethical practices in the study of Asian art."
About the webinar series:
In the series "Unpacking Provenance: Retracing the Histories of Asian Art", experts from different disciplines will each discuss innovative, strategic and collaborative approaches to provenance research using one object at a time. The series explains the research process and promotes innovation and strategic thinking in the field of provenance research. The recordings will subsequently be made available on the websites of the participating institutions.
The kick-off event on 22 January 2025 focused on a porcelain bowl from the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) from the collections of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The museum acquired the bowl in 1940 from a private individual whose father had allegedly taken part in the so-called Boxer War of 1900. The panellists were: Birgitta Augustin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Teng Deyong, Palace Museum / Beijing, Thoralf Klein, Loughborough University (UK), Adriana Proser, Walters Art Museum / Baltimore, Maryland (USA).
The recording of the kick-off event can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUs_gWi_8mA
The next webinar in the series will take place in mid-July 2025.
About the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
With more than 46,000 objects, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art manages one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art in North America, with works from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Islamic world, ranging from antiquity to the present. The rich holdings bring the art of Asia into direct dialogue with a significant collection of American works from the 19th and early 20th centuries and provide an important platform for creative collaboration and cultural exchange between the United States, Asia and the Middle East. The Museum is dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, researching and interpreting art in ways that deepen our collective understanding of Asia and the world.
A 1906 gift from Charles Lang Freer paved the way for the museum's opening in 1923, and today the National Museum of Asian Art is a leading institution for visitors, students, and scholars in the United States and internationally. The museum's galleries, laboratories, archives, and library are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C..
For more information about the museum, visit www.asia.si.edu and on Instagram: @natasianart, X: @NatAsianArt; YouTube: @NatAsianArt; and Facebook: @NatAsianArt.
Press images at:https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html
