Provenance

Provenance is the chain of custody for a work of art: who has owned it, when, and how it changed hands. Strong provenance supports authenticity, affects value, and is increasingly a legal necessity — gaps in the chain raise questions buyers and insurers will ask.

In practice a gallery records provenance as an ordered list on the work's record — collections, sales, gifts, estates — alongside exhibition history and literature. It should live with the inventory record, not in a separate document that drifts.