Provenance Research in Dutch Museums :

Provenance Research Commitment 2009

In January 2009 it was announced that the Dutch government had set aside €1m for its 400 museums to conduct provenance research.  The exact parameters are yet to be determined, but the extent of the research will be wide-ranging.

Research will be undertaken by the museums on a voluntary basis.  The guidelines by which the research wil be conducted and the exact form in which the results will be presented will be decided by the commission responsible for the research.

Project leader is Helen Schretlen, an art historian who formerly worked at the Rijksmuseum, and the author, with Eelke Muller, of Betwist bezit. De Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit en de teruggave van roofkunst na 1945, (Zwolle, Waanders Uitgevers, 2002) on the SNK and art restitution in Holland after 1945.