Wikidata:WikiProject Provenance

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Catalogs are key in documenting provenance and those published before 1920 can be uploaded to Commons

WikiProject Provenance is an effort to get every item about an artwork described by ownership and/or location since its inception on Wikidata. See Wikidata:WikiProject sum of all paintings/Provenance for the latest practices for paintings.

For a start, take a look at The Night Watch (Q219831) and see also Wikidata:WikiProject_sum_of_all_paintings/Catalog. You can now browse paintings by collection here: Wikidata:WikiProject_sum_of_all_paintings/Collection.

Lots of collectors were notable for their collections. Unfortunately their collections are often better documented than they are themselves. Their occupation (P106), if they don't have one assigned, should be set to art collector (Q10732476). If they were dealing, then art dealer (Q173950). If you have access to a catalog, you can add the catalog as you add the provenance claim owned by (P127) = Qid for owner name. Here is a list of paintings per catalog currently on Wikidata.

Check first if the owner is already in Wikidata and otherwise make an item for them - here are some (human) owner overviews :

Item structure to describe provenance on Wikidata[edit]

artworks should be properly described. See Wikidata:WikiProject Visual arts/Item structure to find a full list of properties. We'll highlight some important ones for provenance here.

Property Data type description required
creator (P170) Item maker of this creative work or other object (where no more specific property exists) yes
owned by (P127) Item owner of the subject yes
collection (P195) Item art, museum, archival, or bibliographic collection the subject is part of no
catalog code (P528) String catalog name of an object, use with qualifier P972 no
donated by (P1028) Item person or organization who donated the object no
significant event (P793) Item significant or notable events associated with the subject no
location (P276) Item location of the object, structure or event. In the case of an administrative entity as containing item use P131. For statistical entities use P8138. In the case of a geographic entity use P706. Use P7153 for locations associated with the object no
location of discovery (P189) Item where the item was located when discovered no
location of creation (P1071) Item place where the item was conceived or made; where applicable, location of final assembly no
culture (P2596) Item human culture or people (or several cultures) associated with this item no

Large painting transactions[edit]

Through the centuries, many large painting collectors liked to purchase whole collections, because they knew through experience this was cheaper than waiting for choice pictures in an auction. Paintings they did not value could be sold later through a dealer. There were also cases however where royal or noble art collectors would make a deal on their own with such collectors, hoping to spice up their personal galleries without the extra difficulty of studying all quality aspects of individual paintings. Such a deal was made between Sir Thomas Baring and George IV, see

Estate sales[edit]

Large groups of paintings from long-standing collections are often sold in widely-publicized estate sales. These generally have illustrated catalogs and these deserve an item so that paintings can be linked to them with catalog code P528. The chain of ownership through time can be quite messy, as art dealers may choose to buy up parts of collections or entire estates on speculation. Data modelling for complex transactions can be challenging. Popular agents should have items, and over time, certain auction houses can deal with certain paintings more than once. Sotheby's links to works are not easily tracked with a property (see David Bowie's art collection (Q27149678), but Christie's has two properties; one for artist and for work: Christie's object ID (P3783). It's just important to remember that any collection can be larger than what is sold in a given estate sale, as all collections change over time.

Art dealers and their dealerships[edit]

Prominant art dealers need an item, as do their dealerships, if they held stock for longer lengths of time. Many dealers were art collectors in their own right, and their collections were sold in major auctions. Theoretically, these large dealers should have separate items for themselves (for use with owned by (P127)) and for their dealerships (for use with collection (P195)) for large dealerships run by multiple people with offices in multiple countries, use the dealership in P127 if you're not sure who specifically owned the object. If illustrated catalogs were published and are available, these should be indexed with catalog code (P528) and catalog (P972). Though there is currently no way to catalog an auction sale for a painting without creating an item for the auction sale, you can use significant event (P793) with art auction (Q74570489) and lot number (P4775). For a set of Christie's auction sales using P528, see Important Old Master Paintings From The Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, 19 April 2007 (Q98908680).

Systemic plunder[edit]

Most people have heard of Nazi looting, but the various institutions involved still need to be properly described on Wikidata. The people and institutions involved are different per country. Especially interesting are the cases per country where post-war returned art did not find its way back to the original owners. Some lists are available for Nazi looted art, but we are still missing a lot of data.

In the early 1790s, many royal and noble family art galleries were plundered by the French and put on display in the Louvre. Some but not all of it was returned after Waterloo in 1815. These also still need to be documented though the begin and end dates for the Louvre may not always be precisely known.

Credit line[edit]

There is no credit line property because the credit line as a concept is too unstructured for Wikidata. Often museum donors of paintings are mentioned in the credit line in metadata of online catalogs for various institutions. Whenever possible, these people should be added with donated by (P1028) accompanied by the qualifier point in time (P585). Since these people were the last owners before the painting entered the institution, then the collection (P195) for the institution should have qualifier start time (P580), while the owned by (P127) for this collector should have qualifier end time (P582). This combination of statements should be easy to add for house museums where all objects were donated at the same time by the same person. Note that occasionally museums will deaccession such donations. The various statements should remain on the item, since the time references point to the correct institution at the time of the donation.

Large donors[edit]

Many museums have large donors over time. They may donate tangible works, but also purchasing funds for future expansion. For cases where the credit line specifically mentions the object in a bequest, then owned by (P127) should be used for the owner, who needs his/her own item with occupation art collector added. In situations where the bequest is a fund, then the bequest donor was never the owner and it was the institution's purchase. Acquistion dates help in such decisions, as obviously donors do not make purchases after death. Sometimes there is a gap between the time of death and the acquisition date caused by family members allowed to keep paintings during their lifetimes. In such cases the heir or heirs should have an item to close the time gap. Theoretically, the large donors of all important institutions should have items, as many gave works to more than one institution.

Important painters[edit]

Many important painters have been catalogued multiple times, and many old monographs have been uploaded to Commons. These should have items that ink to the painter, and can be used to discover provenance information for those catalogs that include them on a per painting basis.

Important locations[edit]

Large country houses were built to house portrait galleries that over time switched owners and not all inventories have accurate information. For this reason, it's important to include former attributions of both creator (P170) statements as depicts (P180) statements of sitters. This helps with discovery when dealing with old catalogs. Just create the statement and deprecate it so it doesn't show up in lists. The physical location of a sale or place the painting hung, can often add clues to other parts of the provenance, so where possible, add the start date start time (P580) of the location (P276) for museums and then start & end dates or the point in time point in time (P585) for auction houses or other known places before that.

Challenges[edit]

  • Sometimes two provenances are documented for similar paintings that claim to be the same catalog number in an old catalog and thus claim the provenance of all previous statements prior to that catalog. How do we handle these cases on Wikidata? You can use the property said to be the same as (P460) for both paintings if they look alike, and one is lost. If they look alike and are both still in existance, then use different from (P1889). If one is a copy of the other, then use based on (P144) on the copy and derivative work (P4969) on the copied work to point to the copy.
  • Use of significant event for ownership transfer is a bit difficult. Theoretically in an auction you have a seller, a buyer, and an agent. Sometimes the agent buys on speculation that a certain buyer will buy it. Thus the agent should be named, though you don't know when the actual handover was from the agent to the buyer. For older auctions, sometimes the agent's name is lost or included without a date. In such cases use owned by (P127) with qualifier end time (P582) = auction date for the seller and owned by (P127) with qualifier start time (P580) = auction date for the buyer.
  • Sometimes you see the phrase "there by descent to..." where it's meant that a painting hung in a certain family seat for example. In this case it's useful to go grab the provenance information from another item in the same collection to see if the provenance matches up with the descendant's ownership. Families are tricky things and the collections were sometimes split over time. Make sure the location stayed the same during the provenance period. We are sill missing good provenance information for many castles and noble seats all over.

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