Week 7: Provenance — the paper trail that makes an object real

Why an object's history of ownership is sometimes worth more to its authenticity than the object itself, and how that history gets faked too.

7 September 2027

A painting with a documented, unbroken chain of ownership back to the artist’s studio is worth more than an identical painting with a gap in that chain — not because the paper trail changes the paint, but because provenance is doing the authentication work the object itself often can’t. Which means provenance is just as fakeable as the object, and forging a chain of exhibition catalogues, sale receipts and letters is a distinct craft from forging a canvas, with its own literature of scandal. This lecture is the pivot from making a convincing object to making a convincing history for one — the through-line into the final project.

Outline#

• why a documented history authenticates independently of connoisseurship
• forged provenance: fabricated collections, faked exhibition history, and the Knoedler gallery case
• what a provenance file actually has to contain to be convincing, and where it usually breaks under scrutiny
• this week’s studio session is the crit for Assignment 1