Provenance means the history of an artwork or artifact’s ownership.
Broadly speaking, provenance records a work’s journey, documenting each time it was sold, gifted, traded, or changed custody on the way from its creation or discovery to arriving at its current owner. Determining provenance can be a challenging and complex process since ownership histories are often incomplete, especially for works that date back centuries.
Provenance is determined through a continual process of research. This includes examining information provided at the time of acquisition, as well as conducting new inquiries to supplement existing documentation. Researching provenance is an important part of curatorial practice and the ethical stewardship of any museum collection.
The Asian Art Museum’s ongoing provenance research follows the guidelines and standards put forth by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
When researching the provenance of an artwork, some of the museum’s key inquiries include:
The Asian Art Museum’s Ethical Stewardship and Collections Management policies include the following:
In addition to the rigorous research and documentation required for all acquisitions, the Asian Art Museum’s guidelines for the acquisition of archaeological materials and ancient art include the following:
2021: Two sandstone lintels returned to Thailand
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conveyed a request from the Royal Thai Government’s Fine Arts Department requesting the return of two, approximately 1000-year-old carved stone lintels in the AAM collection. Following a thorough study of all available documentation related to the acquisition of the lintels and their travel from the temple sites where they were known to have been part of the ancient architecture, museum officials and the City Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco recommended that works be deaccessioned from the collection and prepared for return.
Originating in present-day northeastern Thailand, the lintels were acquired from European dealers and entered the collection in the late 1960s as a gift and as a purchase. Research found a lack of evidence documenting that they were removed from Thailand in accordance with Thai laws governing the sale of antiquities. Finding no record of the legal export documentation in the museum archives or in Thailand, the museum found it appropriate to begin the process of deaccessioning and returning the lintels to Thai authorities.
The lintels were returned to the Kingdom of Thailand in 2021.
Asian Art Museum Deaccessioning Two Sandstone Lintels (Sep. 22, 2020 Press Release)
Asian Art Museum Cleared to Return Artworks to Thailand as Long Planned (Feb. 10, 2021 Press Release)
2022: Ghazni marble architectural panel deaccessioned
In 2022, the Asian Art Museum began the process of deaccessioning a 12th-century architectural panel from present-day Afghanistan in its collection. This work was one of numerous such panels in museum collections worldwide that were excavated from the site of a royal palace in Ghazni, once the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, which stretched from Iran to India.
The archaeological site had been surveyed and documented in the 1950s by an Italian research team, who photographed the panel in Afghanistan at that time. The laws of Afghanistan did not allow the legal trade in antiquities from this site and there is no legal manner by which the panel could have entered the international market. The panel arrived at the museum as a gift in 1987, having likely been removed illegally during the chaos that followed the end of the region’s Soviet occupation in the early 1980s. With this knowledge in hand, the Asian Art Commission, the governing body of San Francisco responsible for oversight of the city’s collection of Asian art, voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to deaccession the work from the city’s collection.
Because the United States does not recognize Afghanistan’s current government, the panel remains at the museum. Afghanistan’s national museum in Kabul is aware of the deaccession of the panel and awaits the establishment of regular diplomatic ties with the US. Until that time, the panel is displayed with a label designating it as the property of the people of Afghanistan.
Object record for the Ghazni Architectural Panel
2024: Vote to deaccession four Thai bronzes
In 2024, the Asian Art Museum began the process of deaccessioning and returning four bronze sculptures of Buddhist deities originating in present-day Thailand.
The sculptures were acquired by the museum in the late 1960s and have been linked to the Khmer temple complex Prasat Hin Khao Plai Bat II in northeastern Thailand. Likely created between the 7th and 9th centuries, these works were part of a larger collection of artifacts discovered near the temple complex in the 1960s. Evidence suggests that the temple site was systematically looted, with the statues then being sold into international art markets. This scholarship, research by Thai scholars, and an investigation by U.S. authorities laid the groundwork for a formal repatriation request from the Fine Arts Department of Thailand.
The Asian Art Museum’s Acquisitions Committee has recommended deaccessioning the sculptures; a final vote by the Asian Art Commission is expected in the spring of 2025.
Asian Art Museum Explores Questions of History and Provenance in New Exhibition (Nov. 13, 2024 Press Release)
Information on this site about a particular artwork or image in the Asian Art Museum collection, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete.
Please contact [email protected] if you have questions about a particular artwork or image in our collection.
Image: Lintel with Yama, deity of the underworld, approx. 1000-1080. Buriram province, Northeastern Thailand. Sandstone. Asian Art Museum, Avery Brundage Collection,ZB66S10. Photograph © Asian Art Museum. It is one of the objects repatriated to Thailand in 2021.