Starting from Scratch: Provenance Research and Lost Art Databases

History of objects may add to their allure and enrich their stories as well as complicate their property rights. Professionals and lay people are frequently dealing with uncertainties when handling works of art. Assuming the object is authentic, how did it get from the studio or the factory where it was produced to its present location? The movement of objects through time and space frequently transcends armed conflict and other forms of upheaval. Is the current resting place of the object, necessarily or lawfully the place where the object belongs? When Egon Schiele's painting "Portrait of Wally" was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from the Leopold Museum in Vienna, did