Risky Business: How Provenance Can Influence Collecting
Building an art collection is often a deeply personal process. In keeping with age-old traditions, many collectors develop collections based on their interests and passions, often leaving the practicalities of authenticity, valuation, insurance, or rightful ownership to the experts. However, as a fine art appraiser and provenance researcher, one question often crosses my mind when discussing collection management with art collectors: how do you navigate the realms of authenticity or rightful ownership?
With services such as fine art title insurance, art fair vetting committees, and commercial databases at our disposal, many of us do not pause to contemplate the implications of buying an artwork with little to no provenance. However, these services are not catch-alls. Their results are highly dependent on the information provided: submitting a provenance full of “Private Collections,” without previous owners identified, may skew database queries, while pieces with large gaps in ownership may not be eligible for title insurance. As such, art collectors should take steps to investigate each artwork before purchase, resale, loan, or donation, regardless of price point. This holds particularly true if scandals have permeated the artist’s market in the past.
A Modigliani Market Case Study
A sensational, blue-chip case study revolves around the oeuvre of Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920). Working mainly in France and leading a rather humble existence, the Italian-Jewish painter and sculptor is renowned for his elongated melancholic figures. Rare to come to market and coveted by collectors, demand for Modigliani artworks, particularly nudes, continues to permeate the international art market. However, his legacy is fraught with fakes, Holocaust-era restitution cases, and repeated catalogues raisonné scandals.
Some may remember the 2017 Modigliani exhibition held at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale that, after drawing over 100,000 visitors, closed early due to allegations of displaying fake and forged artworks. The Italian police ultimately seized twenty-one of these “Modigliani’s.” Many were festooned with anachronistic frames and questionable pigments and, ultimately, deemed forgeries by a third-party expert.
Such a scandal was able to arise through the well-publicized discrepancies existing amongst the five Modigliani catalogues raisonné. A few of the tomes include fake works. Some argue collectors paid Modigliani scholars to include their works in the catalogues in an effort to authenticate their paintings at the expense of the catalogue’s reliability. Amidst such confusion and trepidation, Ambrogio Ceroni’s catalogue raisonné (published in 1958 and 1970) serves as a “definitive” guide to Amedeo Modigliani’s authentic works. Recent years have seen museums, such as Tate Modern, or auction houses relying on Ceroni for approving exhibition loans and sale items.
However, in 2016 Modigliani Project founder, Dr. Kenneth Wayne, asserted “that something like 20% of the painter’s oeuvre is missing from the Ceroni catalogue.” Such an assertion leaves room for a Genoa-like scandal. It indicates that there could be dozens of authentic, high-value Modigliani’s floating through the market that have either never been included in a catalogue raisonné or are questioned due to their inclusion in a less reliable catalogue. At the same time, such an assertion highlights the importance of provenance research and scientific analysis to preserve the legacy of an individual artwork or an entire collection.
Amedeo Modigliani, Seated Man with a Cane, 1918, oil on canvas, 126 x 75 cm, Private Collection, Image in the public domain
Others may recall the ongoing restitution case surrounding Modigliani’s 1918 Seated Man with a Cane. The aforementioned painting came up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2008 with an estimate of $18-25 million. Provenance information for this painting was far from complete, including a dubious and lengthy gap in the ownership history spanning 1918-1996. (All collectors should be wary of provenance gaps encompassing the Second World War).
In 2011, a descendent of the Jewish Parisian art dealer, Oscar Stettiner, argued the painting was looted by Nazis during the Second World War and sought its restitution. Based on the available provenance information, courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of Stettiner’s heir, allowing them to continue their fight to reclaim the painting and potentially stripping the previous owners of any claims (legal or monetary) associated with the work. These rulings leave us to question if such pitfalls could have been avoided through a heavier reliance on provenance research.
How to Evaluate Risk
With the Modigliani market in mind, when looking to acquire, sell, loan, or donate art within an active secondary market, it is important to evaluate the answers to the following questions:
• If I purchase this work, will I be able to resell it, for a similar or augmented value, as is?
• Will the secondary market require I pay for additional research or authentication before the artwork can leave my collection?
• Am I willing to pay for additional research or authentication procedures?
• Am I willing to part with an artwork if it is determined that I am not the rightful owner?
Ultimately, if the answer to any of the above questions is “maybe” or “no”, a collector should either look for a different acquisition or be prepared for the potential of significant reductions in artwork valuations or even a complete loss of investment. However, fleshing out the history of art objects serves to facilitate a collector’s ability to traverse the art market with passion as they mitigate the myriad risks that may arise.
Passion may guide our collecting, but logic is the foundation upon which a collection endures. So, don’t forget, building a legacy starts with the paperwork.
About the Author: Aubrey Catrone is an international art historian, appraiser, and provenance researcher. Aubrey earned an MA in History of Art from University College London, specializing in the documented histories of art objects and is a member of the Appraisers Association of America. With an art gallery and academic research background, Catrone founded Proper Provenance, LLC to provide her clients with the tools, not only to historically contextualize art, but also to shed light on attribution and legal title within the international art market.
Catrone has researched artworks paintings, artefacts, works on paper, prints, and sculptures spanning the fourth century B.C. to the twenty-first century A.D. She continues to volunteer with the Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Jeu de Paume Database.
© Aubrey Catrone 2020