a group of people holding 3d glasses

Provenance Lab field trip to the great exhibition „Grund und Boden“ at K21 in Düsseldorf. Foto by curator Kolja Reichert, who very kindly gave us a tour! 🙏🏼

And you can directly read the chapter here.

BOOK CHAPTER: “Provenance as Accountability: Transparent and Verifiable Cataloguing for the Digital Age” Our chapter, “Provenance as Accountability: Transparent and Verifiable Cataloguing for the Digital Age,” has appeared in the Research Handbook on Art, Culture and Heritage Law, edited by Sophie Vigner...

We made a blog post here. provenance.hypotheses.org/4511

By adopting a three-layered nanopublication structure, stable identifiers, and shared vocabularies, the cultural heritage community can transform provenance into a machine-readable, verifiable, and universally shareable resource.

...the text advocates for a decentralized system based on Linked Open Data (LOD) that integrates FAIR & CARE data principles. This framework utilizes VISU—a conceptual categorization of vague, incomplete, subjective, or uncertain information—to ensure that gaps & expert hypotheses are made explicit.

The chapter argues that current museum cataloguing remains limited by analogue concepts and unstructured free text data, which hinders the collective ability to identify looted, stolen, or unethically appropriated cultural property. To realize provenance as a collective tool of accountability...

While historical ownership records were often shaped by commercial interests and selective omissions, modern ethical mandates—driven by the 1998 Washington Principles and efforts toward repatriation and historical reconciliation—demand a scientific approach to transparency and verifiability.

Book cover

⚠️ New Publication ⚠️

Our chapter "Provenance as accountability: Transparent and verifiable cataloguing for the digital age" is here!

This chapter proposes a strategic shift in provenance practice, moving from traditional pedigree models toward a digital framework of institutional accountability.

📅 NEW DEADLINE: April 19, 2026

🔗 Survey: lnkd.in/dsiPBenV

Available in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.

PAESE 3.0 is part of the "Digital Provenance and Collection Research" Science Space, funded by Niedersachsen & the VolkswagenStiftung, as a joint effort b/ Leuphana, the Universities of Oldenburg & Hannover, Jade Hochschule, Landesmuseum Oldenburg, Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum.

agustina.andreoletti As part of the PAESE 3.0 project, we're updating the PAESE provenance research database of objects from colonial contexts in Lower Saxony, Germany. We are looking for perspectives from people connected to the communities these * objects * come from (indigenous and non-indigenous community members, digital specialists, colonial and global historians, researchers, activists, museum professionals). If any of these describe you or someone in your network, we'd love for you to take the survey and help shape this important work. Survey: https://forms.office.com/e/MqrJE5ybZA Deadline: March 17, 2026 Please share widely. The more perspectives, the more meaningful it becomes. The contributions will be published in a Working Paper and will inform and guide how we move forward. PAESE 3.0 is part of the "Digital Provenance and Collection Research" Science Space (Wissenschaftsraum-Initiative), funded by the Land Niedersachsen and the VolkswagenStiftung, as a joint effort between Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Jade Hochschule, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg -, the Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum, and the Netzwerk Provenienzforschung in Niedersachsen.

We're updating the PAESE provenance research database of objects from colonial contexts in Lower Saxony, Germany.

We are looking for perspectives from people connected to the communities these objects come from.

Survey: forms.office.com/e/MqrJE5ybZA

Deadline: March 17!

Rolle der Provenienzforschung im AfD-Papier in Sachsen-Anhalt

AfD will Provenienzforschung abschaffen. Meine Einordnung im #Deutschlandfunk.
www.deutschlandfunk.de/rolle-der-pr...

Here's a little write-up of our very successful Coding Provenance Workshop from our university's press office. Such good times were had! Look out for news about the second iteration of the workshop at the Getty in LA later this year.

One week left to apply for this position with the Provenance Lab!

⚠️ Job Alert ⚠️

We are looking for a Post-Doc in Provenance Studies (till Dec 31, 2027, FT, TV-L 13). German language fluency essential.

Deadline: January 22, 2026.

More info at the link.

Thank you for sharing and spreading the word.

🙏🏼

#jobalert #provenancestudies #leuphana

Call for Papers | | KEMKI Infrastructures of Selling Modern and Contemporary Art in Socialism and Postsocialism

CFP: "We invite proposals for a forthcoming edited volume that critically examines the infrastructures of art markets in Central and Eastern Europe during and after the socialist era."

Deadline: November 30.

person standing at a lectern next to a screen with a slide.

Lab team member Coco Amy Rufer presenting her research on price arguments in restitution cases at the 3rd Fachforum Kunsthandel der Moderne at Berlinische Galerie. 👏🏼

Coding Provenance Workshop December 18–21, 2025 Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany The Coding Provenance workshop marks the launch of an annual series devoted to training in computational techniques for provenance research....

You can apply through this form.

For more info, see this Arthist announcement.

Are you a provenance researcher with no coding experience but curious about computational techniques? In collaboration with the Getty Provenance Index, we’re launching Coding Provenance, a workshop series specially designed for provenance researchers.

Dec 18-21 in Lüneburg Germany.

JOB: 2 Research Associates, Leuphana University Lüneburg

https://arthist.net/archive/49557

Job!

The @provenancelab.bsky.social is seeking research associates with computational experience and/or experience working with collections from colonial contexts (3 years, full-time.)

If you know anyone who might be interested, please share.

And distribute wherever you deem appropriate. Thx!

Art historians, digital humanists, data scientists - explore the new Getty Provenance Index! A vast trove of high quality data about relationships between artists, dealers, collectors, and institutions. The new resources provide many opportunities for research and teaching with more to come.

Taking Care of History: Toward a Politics of Provenance Linked Open Data in Museums | The Art Institute of Chicago An account of the limitations of museums’ current approaches to presenting provenance data digitally that advocates for adopting a linked open data (LOD) approach.

In "Taking Care of History: Toward a Politics of Provenance Linked Open Data in Museums" (2022), we have laid out a detailed vision for how museums should begin addressing the transformation of their provenance records into PLOD - Provenance Linked Open Data.

#DigitalProvenance #PLOD

The Next Horizon of Museum Practice: Voluntary Repatriation, Restitution, and Reparations The Future of Provenance: Digital Cataloguing as Reparative Practice

Check it out!

Our latest text from the Provenance Lab is out!

#digitalprovenance #cataloguing #reparation