Join curators Carolyn M. Laferrière and Perrin Lathrop for a discussion of provenance research and museum collections with Victoria Reed, Sadler Senior Curator of Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Joanna M. Gohmann, provenance researcher and object historian for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. The panel will be moderated by MaryKate Cleary, the Museum’s new curator of provenance, and introduced by Museum Director James Steward. Reception to follow.
Researching an object’s provenance—its history of ownership and location—can span years, but it is essential work that contributes to how and why museums are able to collect works of art, and how they can continue caring for their collections both legally and ethically. In this public conversation, the panelists discuss provenance issues relating to the modern museum and its collections, the challenges that provenance research entails for specific collection areas, how museums share the results of provenance research, and how museums grapple with the evolving legal and ethical standards of the field.
