Provenance Research

Documentation with regard to the provenance, or ownership history, of works of art in The Norton Simon Foundation collection has been an important concern throughout the Foundation’s history. With the recent effort to investigate the history of ownership from the years 1933-1945, the Foundation took on an even more intensive research agenda to learn about the wartime provenance of its objects. Since the late 1990s, Simon staff and skilled scholars have scoured American and European archives and libraries to fill gaps during the war years, and that work continues today.

The next steps towards making this information more widely available beyond the printed publications and existing monographs was to expand upon the current information and images that first appeared on the Norton Simon Museum's website in 1995. Of primary interest and importance was the collection of European Paintings created before 1945, and The Norton Simon Foundation is committed to updating and expanding upon this information regularly. The Norton Simon Foundation encourages any inquiries, and can be contacted at the address below: