Enfilade

Now available as an e-book, with the paperback edition forthcoming from Lund Humphries:

Arthur Tompkins, ed., Provenance Research Today: Principles, Practice, Problems (London: Lund Humphries, 2021), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-1848222762, £30 / $50.

Covering key aspects of provenance research for the international art market, this accessible publication explores a range of themes including challenges and best practice to considerations specific to Nazi looted art and the trade in illicit antiquities. Provenance research is a crucial component of any art-market transaction. Without a provenance it is often difficult to establish a work’s authenticity, its true value or who has legal title. Whether buying, selling or simply maintaining an artwork in either a private or a public collection, the days when a blind eye could be turned to the history (or the lack of a known history) of a work have long gone. Proper, thorough and effective provenance research is the minimum required and demanded in today’s art world—a world that is increasingly recognising the need for greater and more effective self-regulation in the face of fakes, forgeries and challenges to ownership or authenticity that are now commonplace.

Provenance Research Today is essential reading for a broad audience, from those studying to become part of the art world or professionals starting a career in provenance research, to collectors or would-be collectors, dealers, galleries, auction houses, police and art lawyers.

Arthur Tompkins is a District Court Judge based in Wellington, New Zealand. He is author of Plundering Beauty (Lund Humphries, 2018) and editor of Art Crime and Its Prevention: A Handbook for Collectors (Lund Humphries, 2016).