Princeton University Art Museum Appoints MaryKate Cleary as Curator of Provenance

MaryKate Cleary has been named the inaugural Curator of Provenance at the Princeton University Art Museum. A specialist in provenance research, the history of the art market, and legal and ethical issues of cultural heritage in a global context, Cleary is the Museum’s first specialist dedicated to bolstering the institution’s commitment to transparency in its past and present collecting practices and upholding the highest ethical and legal standards. Cleary joins the Museum from The Museum of Fine Arts Houston where she served as a provenance research consultant. As the owner and principal researcher of MaryKate Cleary Provenance Research and Fine Art Consulting, she has worked with numerous museums, auction houses galleries, art lawyers, communities, and governments to support their work in cultural property and provenance research. She began her new position in Princeton on August 5, 2024. 

As the Museum prepares for the 2025 opening of its new building – which will roughly double space for the exhibition, conservation, study and interpretation of the Museum’s globe-spanning collections – Cleary will work closely with Chief Curator Juliana Ochs Dweck and Museum Director James Steward to advance the Museum’s provenance scholarship. Hers will become a leading voice on Princeton’s campus and in the classroom for discussions around cultural property. 

“As an educational institution, we teach through our ethical practices and standards as well as through objects,” said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director. “MaryKate has spent more than a decade working in provenance, and we’re excited by how she will advance our commitment to transparency and to developing and deploying new mechanisms for research.” 

Over the course of 15 years, Cleary has worked with a range of institutions, including as The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Jewish Museum New York; the international art loss database The Art Loss Register; Sotheby’s; and artnet.com. As Manager of Historic Claims and Provenance Research at the Art Loss Register, she maintained a database of over 70,000 objects lost or stolen during the Nazi era, investigating and resolving hundreds of claims from victims of Nazi persecution. In addition, Cleary has arranged major academic conferences for New York University and The International Art Market Studies Association and has appeared as an expert in numerous print, TV, radio, film and media productions, including CNN, Sky News, and The History Channel. 

Cleary is in the final stages of completing her PhD in the History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, with her dissertation, ‘Galerie Paul Rosenberg: Transnational Art Dealer Strategies and Agency in Nazi-era Restitution – 1905-1950.’ She is also co-author with Professor Frances Fowle of the forthcoming edited volume The Art Market and the Museum: institutional collecting, display and patronage since the mid-nineteenth century (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025). “I’m honored to join the leaders, curators, and researchers at the Princeton University Art Museum, who have already built a strong institutional foundation for provenance work,” said Cleary. “I look forward to inviting the public into the Museum’s research and provenance practices, particularly as we approach the opening of our new building next year.” 

Provenance work is critical to the mission of the Princeton University Art Museum. The Museum conducts research on prospective new acquisitions and on the objects already within its care, seeking to meet and surpass the legal and ethical standards imposed by law, cultural conventions, the museum field, and communities of origin. 

Cleary will moderate a public panel on the topic of provenance research at Princeton University on September 18. The event will feature Carolyn Laferrière, the Museum’s Associate Curator of Ancient Mediterranean Art, and Perrin Lathrop, Assistant Curator of African Art, alongside Victoria Reed, Sadler Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Joanna Gohmann, Provenance Researcher and Object Historian for Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. The panel will be introduced by Museum Director James Steward. 

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About the Princeton University Art Museum 

With a collecting history that extends back to 1755, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the leading university art museums in the country, featuring collections that have grown to include more than 115,000 works of art ranging from ancient to contemporary art and spanning the globe. Committed to advancing Princeton’s teaching and research missions, the Art Museum also serves as a gateway to the University for visitors from around the world. 

The main Museum building is currently closed for the construction of a bold and welcoming new building, slated to open in 2025. 

Art on Hulfish, a gallery project of the Art Museum located at 11 Hulfish Street, is open daily through January 2025. Art@Bainbridge, a gallery project at 158 Nassau Street, is open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission to both galleries is free. 

Please visit the Museum’s website for digital access to the collections, a diverse portfolio of programs, and details on visiting our downtown galleries. The Museum Store in Palmer Square, located at 56 Nassau Street in downtown Princeton, is open daily, or shop online at www.princetonmuseumstore.org. 

Media Contacts: Emma Gordon | puam@berlinrosen.com