How provenance became sexy

Tracking provenance is the detective genre of the museum world, attracting filmmakers and journalists as well as museum professionals.
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Still from the film The Woman in Gold

Provenance is a serious business, a difficult and expensive issue that has always troubled museum professionals and art dealers.

No one knows that better than the National Gallery of Australia, which is currently reviewing provenance in response to the now notorious case of the stolen Shiva. The Shiva, which now appears to have been stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu before being purchased by the NGA via New York gallerist Subhash Kapoor in 2008, was repatriated to India in September. A sculpture from the Art Gallery of NSW and another from the NGA have also been repatriated.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina