Dr. Jacques Schuhmacher

March 5, 2025

Jacques Schuhmacher is the Executive Director of Provenance Research at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he leads the museum’s provenance initiatives across the entire collection, including building on the museum’s existing provenance research practice. He served as the Senior Provenance Research Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. During his tenure at the V&A, he was responsible for leading research efforts into the provenance of the entire collection. His expansive work across departments and regions included work on a wide range of restitution and repatriation cases. His research led to the return of several objects to their countries of origin, including a golden ewer from 2,000 BCE to Turkey.

Schuhmacher is a leader in the field. He has published widely on provenance matters and co-founded a working group to share information between museums in the United States and Europe, which has rapidly grown from 25 to 130 provenance experts engaged in this important work.