Throughout the world, there are many works of art that have a contested

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

. This may be due to theft, lost documentation,

looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

, or just information lost to antiquity. In some cases, just the previous or current ownership of the work is disputed, but in other cases the

authenticity Authenticity or authentic may refer to: * Authentication, the act of confirming the truth of an attribute Arts and entertainment * Authenticity in art, ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic Music * A ...

of the work itself may be thought to be a

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

. During World War II, Nazis stole many works of art from Jewish families, or looted them from cities in the war.

Cleveland Museum of Art – Apollo Sauroktonos by Praxiteles

The Cleveland Museum of Art purchased a bronze sculpture of ''Apollo Sauroktonos'', which some believe to be the only bronze in existence from the original Greek artist Praxiteles. However, the work has an incomplete provenance, and some claim it is a later Roman copy.

Louvre – Bronze Monkeys

Recently there has been debate within the antiques industry regarding a bronze monkey held in the Louvre initially believed to be the work of famous sculptor

Giambologna Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...

. Following the finding of two other bronze monkeys by British antique dealer Colin Wilson, however, the validity of the monkey held in the Louvre, claimed by 'experts' to be the real work of Giambologna, has been called into question. The Louvre monkey is simply too deep to fit the niche in which it was supposedly situated on the Samson and a Philistine fountain it was originally designed and created for. The quality of the monkey in the Louvre is also up for debate; the form is not lifelike, the fur is not realistic, and the pose does not match the poses of the monkeys in the Uffizi drawing, which is the only evidence for the monkeys being in the niches. Colin Wilson's monkeys, however, do match this drawing, are made of a gunmetal dated to the 16th/17th century, are unrefined, and are of a high lead content, all of which are traits of a work of Giambologna. The debate continues to this day. In July 2008, the Colin Wilson monkeys, along with a newly discovered third, were sold at auction.

Republic of Austria – the equestrian painting of Bellini from the Sarah Lederer Collection

Ernst Lederer, a well known art historian, has been "dazu bewogen" (induced) to "donate" this valuable painting to the Republic of Austria in return for an export license for a fragment of the large Lederer collection which was destroyed at the end of the war by SS troops at

Schloss Immendorf Schloss Immendorf was a castle in the village of Immendorf near the market town of Wullersdorf in the district of Hollabrunn in the northeast of Lower Austria, within the Weinviertel region. From 1942 to May 1945, the Institut für Denkmalpflege ( ...

(including famous paintings by Klimt and Schiele) or like the textiles and drawings disappeared during 1938–1940. In such a case Austrian courts would refuse to accept any claims for compensation. The famous Klimt Fries in the Lederer collection was, however, not included in the export license, and it took until the 1970s when Chancellor Bruno Kreisky himself started negotiations for the Republic of Austria to buy the Klimt Fries from Lederer.When Erich Lederer had tried to get back the Bellini painting in the 1950s the Austrian Ministry for Education refused.

Other items

* '' Victorious Youth'' *

The Hunt of the Unicorn ''The Hunt of the Unicorn'' or the ''Unicorn Tapestries'' (french: La Chasse à la licorne) is a series of seven tapestries made in the South Netherlands around 1495–1505, and now in The Cloisters in New York. They were possibly designed in ...

* Getty kouros * The

Mary Tudor pearl The Mary Tudor pearl or simply ''The Tudor pearl'' is an asymmetrical drop-shaped pearl featured in at least three portraits of Queen Mary I of England and estimated to be 64.5 carats, 258 grains in weight and dated to 1526. It is often mista ...

, one of the most famous stones in the crown jewelry of Spain, most commonly associated with the pearl known today as

La Peregrina La Peregrina is one of the most famous pearls in the world. Once owned by several Spanish monarchs, its history spans almost 500 years and recently belonged to actress Elizabeth Taylor. The jewel is now in private ownership. Origin of name '' ...

, but the

Pearl of Kuwait The Pearl of Kuwait is a pearl that was bought in 2004 by its current owners, Bond Street, London jewellers Symbolic & Chase, and named the ''Pearl of Kuwait'' in recognition of the Persian Gulf waters in which many pearls have been found. It mea ...

is also claimed to be historical original. * ''

Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol The Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol, is a 900-year-old statue of Natarajan — the dancing Shiva — that was stolen from the ancient Brihadeeswarar temple of Sripuranthan, smuggled to the United States, and then sold to the National Gallery of Aust ...

'' * Tilla Durieux portrait by Oskar Kokoschka * ''Flora'' (bust)

References

External links