Guide 104 - Provenance of the Artwork

Often in an online listing we see references of provenance or names of individuals who had purchased it before us.

What does provenance do for the art? What value does it add?

In my opinion (which is quite obviously not a mainstream opinion) the previous owner of art is as inconsequential to the real value of the art as say the packaging material used to transport it.

The fact that a celebrity owned it before me is not going to make it more beautiful to me.

The only two things that really matter are a) my personal judgement of the artwork - for which I need to spend time educating myself b) my attraction to it.

If I do seek third-party endorsement it would be from scholars and experts who  have seen hundreds of that items pass through their hands so that they may point out aspects that I had not noticed. If such a person were to be the previous owner then and only then would provenance matter to me. So I can rest assured that if Expert Mr. PJS approved of it, then I am making a wise choice.

On the other hand if it belonged to the estate of celebrity or singer XYZ it would not matter at all. In fact it might be counterproductive as I would be worried of the unwarranted escalation in prices.

Instead of provenance of ownership, I would love it if we could be told the names of the artists who created that beauty! But in the case of folk art especially those pieces created a long time ago, these details are lost forever.

But my opinion is not important. The fact is that artworks linked to big-name previous owners do command an increased premium.

 

 

 

 

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