Restitution and repatriation at the V&A
Learn more
Provenance Research at the V&A
Researching the acquisition and ownership histories of our collections
Latest Updates
About the Project
The V&A is actively engaged in provenance research. We continually seek to learn more about the origins of objects, books and archives in our care, and to share this knowledge openly and transparently. We are particularly committed to examining colonial and Nazi-era provenance in our collections.
Context
Provenance — the study of the ownership histories of objects — is a rapidly-growing field of research in UK museums. Today, the V&A's policies for potential acquisitions include robust Due Diligence procedures. However, our records do not always hold detailed provenance information for historic acquisitions dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Through provenance research, we seek to learn more about the different ways in which items have come to be in the museum, and to develop a deeper understanding not only of their origins, but also of their significance and meaning today.
Aim
In addition to undertaking ongoing research into the provenance of our collections, the V&A is committed to sharing this information openly and transparently with our audiences both in our physical galleries and online. Our research helps to facilitate meaningful dialogue about restitution, repatriation and cultural partnerships. We also strive to connect and collaborate with researchers across the globe to ensure that our research in this area has a meaningful impact far beyond the museum, and to share our library and archival resources with the international provenance research community.
Outcomes
Since 2018 the museum has shared three special displays dedicated to histories of colonial and Nazi-era provenance in its collection, and we are continually working to bring this same transparency to our galleries, including the major redesign of the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries (reopening 2026) and the redevelopment of the South Asia Galleries (opening 2028). We regularly publish research and discoveries online through blogs and on our Explore the Collections database, and host events where we share knowledge and receive feedback on our work.
Project Outputs
The Team
Alex Watson Jones
Provenance Research Curator
Alex is a researcher and curator specialising in collecting histories. Her doctoral research explored the collecting of Ethiopian material culture in Britain, and she curated the V&A’s 2018 display Maqdala 1868. She leads, coordinates and advises on p ... Read more
a.watsonjones@vam.ac.uk
V&A Staff
- Director of the V&A Research Institute, National Art Library and Archives
- Chief Librarian, National Art Library
Anna Jackson
- Keeper, Asia Department
Doctoral Placement Students
2025: Molly Judd (Researching the Provenance of Ethiopian Collections)
2025: Pim Fitzpayne (Researching the Provenance of South-East Asian Collections)
2025: Michelle Zhu (Researching Nazi-era provenance in the National Art Library)
2023: Shreya Gupta (Researching the Provenance of South Asian Collections)
2022: Tullia Fraser (Searching for Dealers in the V&A’s East Asia Collection)
Past V&A Staff
Jacques Schuhmacher (Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Provenance and Spoliation Curator, 2018-2022; Senior Provenance Research Curator, supported by The Polonsky Foundation, 2022-2024).
Events
Provenance Research Seminar: Librarians and Provenance
Dr Richard Espley, Chief Librarian of the National Art Library at the V&A, explores the pressing need for UK librarians to engage more with the history of the items in their care.
Seminar Room 1, Learning Centre, V&A South Kensington
2 December 2025
Postgraduate Study Day: Provenance Research in the National Art Library and Archives
Aimed at postgraduate researchers with an interest in the ownership histories of cultural heritage artefacts, this study day introduces the V&A’s National Art Library and Archive collections.
National Art Library, V&A South Kensington
21 November 2025
Lunchtime Lecture: Artefacts or Relics?
Professor Ahuja explains how relics are defined in Buddhism, their role in geopolitics, changes in the law, and how these shifts impact museology.
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, V&A South Kensington
4 November 2025
Provenance Research Seminar: Artistic Responses to Nazi Theft
The artists Katharina Mayrhofer and Helen Emily Davy present their project as a lens through which to understand difficult pasts, the the ways in which they are remembered, and our relationship to these pasts and to each other in the present.
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, V&A South Kensington
22 October 2025
Provenance Research Seminar: National Trust & the Clive Collection
This talk by Dr Rebekah Hodgkinson and Dr Rhea Tuli Partridge expands the boundaries of provenance research to encompass the lives of heritage institutions and collections.
V&A South Kensington, Seminar Room 1, Learning Centre
23 September 2025
V&A Provenance Research Seminar: Sloane Lab
The talk explores new provenance and collecting histories that have emerged from the ‘Sloane Lab’ project at the British Museum
Seminar Room 1, Learning Centre, V&A South Kensington
23 July 2025
V&A Provenance Research Seminar: State of the (Future) Field
This talk considers the state of the field of the history of collecting and its institutions, looking forward also to the future of this evolving field of study.
Hochhauser Auditorium, V&A South Kensington
3 June 2025
V&A
More Research Projects
Header image: V&A departmental registers relating to three Meissen figures from the Emma Budge collection