Toward a Repository of “Contested Objects”: Critical Provenance
Assignment/Case Study Analysis
Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, Neue Galerie, New York.
DUE: November 22, 2024
WEIGHT: 25% of final grade
DESCRIPTION:
This assignment is intended to be an extension of class material we have
covered about the politics of collecting, ownership, repatriation, authenticity, and
other potential (mis)uses of art and material culture.
For the assignment, you will be asked to select and research one artwork,
artefact, or collection, in a museum or private hands, that is (or was at some
point), a site of debate or controversy due to issues related to its history of
ownership, treatment, and/or authenticity. This might include objects that were
looted, stolen, confiscated, lost, appropriated, destroyed, forged, or embedded in
other problematic circumstances (such as controversial modes of display or
preservation/conservation – see accompanying video for further explanation).
You will then build a “case study” analysis around your chosen object, exploring
its background/history, and the legal, ethical, and/or theoretical issues it
represents. Together as a class, we will have a repository of “contested objects”
that touch on key issues and debates in the field.
**Note: The only case study that you may not choose is the Gʼpsgolox
Totem Pole.
In no particular order, your paper should address the following areas (these
areas may overlap):
1. Contextual/historical background.
- What is the “story” of your chosen case study?
- What is the origin of the object? Has it changed ownership? Etc.
2. Issues/Debates:
- Why is/was this object/artwork a subject of debate or controversy?
- What key issues or questions does your case study highlight? These
might be ethical or legal issues (see below), as well as theoretical or
art-world debates (for example, debates about value, authenticity,
authorship, ownership and cultural property, and the roles of museums
in relation to one or more of these issues). There are many possibilities
here, depending on your chosen topic.
- How has your case study been framed by other scholars? Do you agree
with their perspectives?
3. What “rules” are relevant to your case study?:
- Laws or regulations (local, national or international)?
- Other formal regulations, documents, protocols/policies, or standards?
(These could be museum policies, standards set by national or
international museum associations, or non-governmental organizations
[NGOs], etc.)
- Precedents?
- Agreements between involved parties?
- Professional standards, norms, expectations?
- Public expectations?
- Ethical and/or moral standards?
- Have there been court proceedings related to your case study? If so,
what was the result?
- Perhaps your case even instigated a shift in museum policies or
practices – if so, detail this history.
4. Current Status:
- Where is it now? If the object has undergone a change in location,
value, display, interpretation, etc., please explain/expand on this (if you
haven’t already).
- Have the issues surrounding it been resolved in some way? If not, why
not? What does this say, and what work remains to be done? If so, was
the resolution satisfactory? Did any new conflicts arise in the process?
Did it bring up any new issues or debates?
5. What can be learned/done?:
- What can we learn from this case study? Does it shed light on a
particular issue or debate? Did it set a legal precedent or lead to new
processes/standards? Might it serve as a model (positive or negative)
for other similar cases?
- The key here is that your essay will be more than simply a description
of the object and its history, it is also a critical analysis that will center
your own argument and insight, supported by research into both your
chosen object and any broader debates/issues you choose to highlight.
- Please include a clear thesis that states what you think is important
about your chosen object/case study.
THE DETAILS:
Format: 4-5 pages (1000-1250 words), Times New Roman, 12pt. font, double-
spaced.
Required Sources:
A close engagement with at least 3 academic research sources from outside
of required course readings (these include books, e-books and academic journal
articles accessed through the library search tool or databases like JSTOR).
- These sources could be on the topic of your specific object, or they might
cover more general legal, theoretical, or (art-)historical frameworks that
you will apply to your chosen topic.
You may include additional, non-academic sources (such as online articles, news
items, or websites), and required course readings as well, but these would be
above and beyond the required 3 academic sources that you will engage
substantially with. Optional course readings will count toward required sources if
they are academic sources.
Sources and Citation:
Formal citations are required for this assignment. You may use Chicago Manual
or MLA for your citations, but be sure to use an up-to-date style guide (provided
below and in the supplementary material for the assignment), and be consistent!
Please include a complete bibliography.
All assignments submitted are expected to be written in your own words, using
proper paraphrasing and citation practices. The use of AI for this assignment is
permitted for initial brainstorming only – any and all information gathered from
AI platforms such as ChatGPT will need to be verified from an external
source and properly cited.
Being able to analyze and synthesize information, formulate arguments, and
organize and express ideas is a vital part of human communication, and an
essential component of what this assignment is asking you undertake – as such,
the use of ChatGPT to generate the actual writing of your essay is strictly
prohibited for this assignment. Please carefully review the full AI policy on the
course syllabus.
Citation guides:
For detailed citation guidelines, see: [Link]
Images: Should appear numbered on a separate page (or pages) at the end of
your paper (before the bibliography), and should be labelled with all pertinent
information (refer to your chosen style guide). Please do not embed your
images within the body of your text.
Example (for image found online):
Fig. 1: Ralph Heimans, Gloves Off (Tom Uren), 1996. Oil paint on canvas.
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia.
[Link] 2000.36/gloves-off-tom-uren.
Resources:
“Holocaust-era provenance research in Canadian art museums and galleries,”
Government of Canada,
[Link]
documentation-standards/[Link]
“The Art Detectives,” TVO (includes several episodes showing how experts
investigate the authenticity of a work of art – may be useful for framing):
[Link]
“Lost Art Database,” German Lost Art Foundation, [Link]
Charney, Noah. The Museum of Lost Art. London: Phaidon, 2018.
Jisgang Nika Collison, Sdaahl K̲’awaas Lucy Bell, Lou-ann Neel, Indigenous
Repatriation Handbook, Royal BC Museum,
[Link]
Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: the Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the
Third Reich and the Second World War. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1995.
Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum: the Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s
Greatest Works of Art. 1st ed. New York: BasicBooks, 1997.
These are just a few possible sources, there are many many resources out there
on these topics if you do some digging on the internet and the library website.