Provenance Research
Provenance is an investigative method of following an object’s physical journey from its moment of origin to the present day. The field of provenance research has evolved and continues to change significantly, and the Smart Museum of Art is committed to studying the layered histories of objects in our permanent collection.
In 2015, the Museum was awarded the first Association of Art Museum Directors’ Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Fellowship, which focused on works created in Europe prior to World War II; and in 2024, in collaboration with the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, the Smart explored new opportunities in conducting provenance research into objects of religious origin, thanks to a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc.
In 2025, the Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded the Museum a transformative, multi-year grant to support provenance research through institutional, interdisciplinary, and community initiatives that are uniquely possible at an academic art museum.
The grant will support the four-year project, Afterlives: Engaging Objects of Religious Origin in Museum Collections, a collaboration between the Smart Museum of Art and the University of Chicago Divinity School’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.
“This transformative grant enables the Smart Museum to deepen its commitment to ethical stewardship, rigorous research, and transparency. Provenance research helps us restore historical context, honor the religious and secular communities connected to our collections, and contribute meaningfully to a growing field of scholarship. As an academic museum within a leading research university, we are uniquely positioned to lead this kind of interdisciplinary inquiry—bridging art history, ethics, and cultural studies. With this support, we can better fulfill our responsibility to the communities tied to these works and help shape a more informed and inclusive cultural narrative.”
—Vanja Malloy, Ph.D., Dana Feitler Director, Smart Museum of Art
Dive deeper into the Smart’s recent repatriation process of Sinjungdo painting and future pathways of the Smart’s provenance policies and efforts.