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Works Of Art With Contested Provenance
Throughout the world, there are many works of art that have a contested provenance. This may be due to theft, lost documentation, looting, or just information lost to antiquity. In some cases, just the previous or current ownership of the work is disputed, but in other cases the authenticity of the work itself may be thought to be a forgery. During World War II, Nazis stole many works of art from Jewish families, or looted them from cities in the war. Cleveland Museum of Art – Apollo Sauroktonos by Praxiteles The Cleveland Museum of Art purchased a bronze sculpture of ''Apollo Sauroktonos'', which some believe to be the only bronze in existence from the original Greek artist Praxiteles. However, the work has an incomplete provenance, and some claim it is a later Roman copy. Louvre – Bronze Monkeys Recently there has been debate within the antiques industry regarding a bronze monkey held in the Louvre initially believed to be the work of famous sculptor Giambologna. Follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, paleontology, archives, manuscripts, printed books, the circular economy, and science and computing. The primary purpose of tracing the provenance of an object or entity is normally to provide contextual and circumstantial evidence for its original production or discovery, by establishing, as far as practicable, its later history, especially the sequences of its formal ownership, custody and places of storage. The practice has a particular value in helping Authentication, authenticate objects. Comparative techniques, expert opinions and the results of scientific tests may also be used to these ends, but establishing provenance is essentially a matter of documentation. The term dates to the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorious Youth
The Victorious Youth, Getty Bronze, also known as ''Atleta di Fano'', or ''Lisippo di Fano'' is a Greek bronze sculpture, made between 300 and 100 BC, in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Pacific Palisades, California. Many underwater bronzes have been discovered along the Aegean and Mediterrean coast; in 1900 sponge divers found the '' Antikythera Youth'' and the portrait head of a Stoic, at Antikythera, the standing Poseidon of Cape Artemision in 1926, the Croatian Apoxyomenos in 1996 and various bronzes until 1999. The ''Victorious Youth'' was found in the summer of 1964 in the sea off Fano on the Adriatic coast of Italy, snagged in the nets of an Italian fishing trawler. In the summer of 1977, The J. Paul Getty Museum purchased the bronze statue and it remains in the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. Bernard Ashmole, an archaeologist and art historian, was asked to inspect the sculpture by a Munich art dealer Heinz Herzer; he and other scholars attributed it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Héctor Feliciano
Hector Feliciano (born 1952) is a Puerto Rican journalist and author whose book "''The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art''" has shed light on an estimated 20,000 works of art plundered by the Nazis; each one is owned by a museum or a collector somewhere. Early years Feliciano was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Puerto Rican parents (Héctor and Nereida), while his father was concluding his MD residency. He was raised in San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico where he received his primary and secondary education, graduating from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. During the early part of his youth he became interested in studying art and culture, however his family expected him to follow his father's footsteps and study medicine. Feliciano moved to Waltham, Massachusetts, and attended Brandeis University, earning in 1974 his bachelor's degree in History and Art History. Feliciano earned his master's degree in the Columbia Universit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora (bust)
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms ''gut flora'' or ''skin flora''. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thurmann (1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately.Thurmann, J. (1849). ''Essai de Phyt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense Expressionism, expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expressionist movement. Early life The second child of Gustav Josef Kokoschka, a Bohemian goldsmith, and Maria Romana Kokoschka (née Loidl), Oskar Kokoschka was born in Pöchlarn. He had a sister, Berta, born in 1889; a brother, Bohuslav, born in 1892; and an elder brother who died in infancy. Oskar had a strong belief in omens, spurred by a story of a fire breaking out in Pöchlarn shortly after his mother gave birth to him. The family's life was not easy, largely due to a lack of financial stability of his father. They constantly moved into smaller flats, farther and farther from the thriving centre of the town. Concluding that his father was inadequate, Kokoschka drew closer to his mother; and seeing himself as the head of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tilla Durieux
Tilla Durieux (born Ottilie Godeffroy; 18 August 1880 – 21 February 1971) was an Austrian theatre and film actress of the first decades of the 20th century. Early Years Born Ottilie Helene Angela Godeffroy on 18 August 1880, she was the daughter of the Austrian chemist Richard Max Victor Godeffroy (1847–1895) and his wife, the Hungarian pianist Adelheid Ottilie Augustine Godeffroy (née Hrdlicka, died 1920), who was born in Romania. After graduating from elementary school, she switched to the public school in Vienna's 9th district. She was baptized in the evangelical parish Augsburg Confession in Vienna. Career She trained as an actress in Vienna, her native town, and made her debut at the Moravian Theatre in Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1902. Since her mother refused her career choice, she later adopted the stage name Durieux, derived from du Rieux, the maiden name of her paternal grandmother. The next season she got an engagement in Breslau (Wrocław since 1945). From 1903 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol
The Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol, is a 900-year-old statue of Natarajan — the dancing Shiva — that was stolen from the ancient Brihadeeswarar temple of Sripuranthan, smuggled to the United States, and then sold to the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra with a false provenance, for US$5.1 million. The statue was consequently returned by Australia to the Indian government on ethical grounds, once questions were raised on due diligence not being followed during the acquisition. Nataraja Nataraja (Tamil: "நடராசர்" or ''Kooththan'' "கூத்தன்; ''The Lord (or King) of Dance'') is a depiction of the Hindu God Shiva as the cosmic dancer who performs his divine dance to destroy a weary universe and make preparations for the god Brahma to start the process of creation. The dance of Shiva in Tillai, the traditional name for Chidambaram, forms the motif for all the depictions of Shiva as Nataraja. He is also known as "Sabesan" which splits as "Sabayil aadum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Of Kuwait
The Pearl of Kuwait is a pearl that was bought in 2004 by its current owners, Bond Street, London jewellers Symbolic & Chase, and named the ''Pearl of Kuwait'' in recognition of the Persian Gulf waters in which many pearls have been found. It measures 258.12 grains (64.5 carats, 69.8 carats with its diamond cap) making it the third-largest (documented) well-formed natural pearl drop. In 2004, a large pearl named the Pearl of Kuwait was consigned by an undisclosed private family for auction at Christie's in London. The Pearl of Kuwait was part of the Pearls exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which closed on 19 January 2014. Its owners have made claims that it is the Tudor pearl depicted in the portraits of Mary I of England. The pearl is currently on loan to the Smithsonian, who make no claims of its history or provenance. The Smithsonian does say that it is exceptional, that it weighs 64.4 carats, that its setting is 19th century in style, and that the pea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Peregrina
La Peregrina is one of the most famous pearls in the world. Once owned by several Spanish monarchs, its history spans almost 500 years and recently belonged to actress Elizabeth Taylor. The jewel is now in private ownership. Origin of name ''La Peregrina'' is a Spanish word. It means "the Pilgrim-woman" or female "Wanderer". Physical characteristics The original weight of this pear-shaped pearl was 223.8 grains, (55.95 carats, 11.2 g, almost .4 oz.). At the time of its discovery, it was the largest pearl ever found. In 1913 the pearl had to be drilled and cleaned to secure it firmly to its setting. After drilling and cleaning, the pearl's weight decreased to 203.84 grains. La Peregrina remains one of the largest perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped pearls in the world. History The first reference to this pearl can be found in '''Commentarios Reales de Los Incas by historian Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616). He tells of an exceptional pear-shaped pearl, which was brought back t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Tudor Pearl
The Mary Tudor pearl or simply ''The Tudor pearl'' is an asymmetrical drop-shaped pearl featured in at least three portraits of Queen Mary I of England and estimated to be 64.5 carats, 258 grains in weight and dated to 1526. It is often mistakenly depicted as the La Peregrina pearl, however, Mary Tudor could never have worn the Peregrina as it was first recorded in 1579, 21 years after her death. ''The Tudor Pearl'' disappeared in the late 16th century. A similar pearl was sold at auction in 2004 by London jewellers Symbolic & Chase and named the ''Pearl of Kuwait'', whose owners have made claims that it is the ''Tudor Pearl'' due to similarities in shape and size. This pearl is currently on loan to the Smithsonian, who make no claims of its history or provenance. History The Tudor pearl was found around 1526 and was given to Isabella of Portugal. When Isabella died in 1539, she bequeathed it to her daughter, Juana of Austria. It was then sent to Mary I as part of the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Getty Kouros
The Getty kouros is an over-life-sized statue in the form of a late archaic Greek kouros. The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, in 1985 for ten million dollars and first exhibited there in October 1986. Despite initial favourable scientific analysis of the patina and aging of the marble, the question of its authenticity has persisted from the beginning. Subsequent demonstration of an artificial means of creating the de-dolomitization observed on the stone has prompted a number of art historians to revise their opinions of the work. If genuine, it is one of only twelve extant complete kouroi. If fake, it exhibits a high degree of technical and artistic sophistication by an as-yet unidentified forger. Its status has remained undetermined: latterly the museum's label read "Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery". Although the statue was removed from public display after the 2018 renovations, Dr. Timothy Potts, the curre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hunt Of The Unicorn
''The Hunt of the Unicorn'' or the ''Unicorn Tapestries'' (french: La Chasse à la licorne) is a series of seven tapestries made in the South Netherlands around 1495–1505, and now in The Cloisters in New York. They were possibly designed in Paris and show a group of noblemen and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn through an idealised French landscape. The tapestries were woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk. The vibrant colours, still evident today, were produced from dye plants: weld (yellow), madder (red), and woad (blue). First recorded in 1680 in the Paris home of the Rochefoucauld family, the tapestries were looted during the French Revolution. Rediscovered in a barn in the 1850s, they were hung at the family's Château de Verteuil. Since then they have been the subject of intense scholarly debate about the meaning of their iconography, the identity of the artists who designed them, and the sequence in which they were meant to be hung. Although various theories hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
