Provenance

What is provenance?

Provenance is the documented history of an artwork's origin and ownership — essentially its pedigree from the moment it left the artist's studio to the present day. It includes the names of previous owners, records of sales, exhibition history and mentions in scholarly publications. For a specialist it is a way of verifying where a work has travelled and who has owned it. And the more complete that story is, the firmer the ground beneath a collector's feet.

Why is provenance so important for price?

Provenance serves first of all to establish authenticity, which with art is always the very first question. At the same time it can substantially raise value: if a work was once owned by a major collector or a prestigious institution, its price at sale can rise considerably. A work from the collection of a famous figure regularly sells well above estimate, as the dispersal of the musician Elton John's collection showed. You are buying not only the painting, after all, but its story.

How does provenance relate to authenticity and restitution in the Czech context?

In the Czech context provenance is an exceptionally sensitive subject, because of the confiscations of the twentieth century. Auction houses therefore examine it especially carefully in order to forestall later restitution claims on artworks. Many collections reach the market because of the so-called 3D rule — death, debt, divorce — the three most common situations in life that send a work to auction. It is no wonder that a work's pedigree is read doubly carefully here.

Can you give a concrete example?

The painting Staropražský motiv of 1911 by Bohumil Kubišta illustrates it beautifully. It passed through the hands of major Czech collectors before being confiscated by the communist regime and exhibited for many years at the National Gallery. After the fall of the regime it was returned to the heirs, who many years later sold it successfully, thanks in part to this quite exceptional provenance. It contributed to its record sale in 2022, when it was auctioned for 123.6 million crowns. It is hard to imagine stronger proof that a work's pedigree has a value of its own.

— Anna Pulkertová, founder of Art Part Club