Course Catalogue

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The course highlights the highest aspiration of civil society to enhance cross-border protection and international security of cultural heritage. To effectively guard against theft, looting and trafficking of culture, provenance research must be skilfully deployed. The course invites students to engage critically and creatively with three distinctive dimensions of provenance research: as a method in the attribution and authentication of works of art in commercial disputes; as a standard for the art trade that may also support restitution claims in the quest to trace, reconstruct and verify the chain of makers, owners or custodians of cultural heritage; and as a guiding post in relation to broader questions of cultural responsibility, justice and ethics when racially motivated transfers of and mimetic conflicts involving cultural heritage have occurred. The course also invites students to investigate new frontiers in provenance research, such as AI.

8 x 1 hour Lecture

8 x 1 hour Seminar

1 x 2 hour Seminar

1 X 2 hour session on class presentations

Standard entry to masters at College level.

N/A

None

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ One 3500 word Essay (70%)

■ One 15 minute Oral presentation on a Case Study (30%)

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the essay, but a flexible deadline can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

■ There is no alternative to the oral presentation on a case study, but a flexible deadline can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ equip students to take full account of collection ethics associated with the trans-national movement of cultural objects and with societal displacement;

■ highlight discrepancies between societal aspirations, the standards of acquisition set in codes of conduct, and actual practices of collecting;

■ explain the problems associated with gaps in provenance of art and cultural objects;

■ determine how provenance can be checked; and

■ equip them with a nuanced understanding of art history.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ critically evaluate the implications of provenance research for cultural history;

■ explain the consequences of incomplete, inaccurate or false provenance of works for the art trade and for museums; 

■ explain how provenance research can help remove impediments arising from lack of information or pollution of information in the art trade;

■ demonstrate an understanding of how curatorial, archaeological and legal contexts affect provenance research;

■ build, review, consolidate and extend their own knowledge and understanding through the use of primary sources of information on the topics covered; and

■ initiate and carry out provenance research based on evidence sourced in a wide variety of places, including online sources, taking due account of legal and ethical standards covered in the course.