The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (V&A) has launched a webpage dedicated to research into the provenance of its objects. The page shines a light on the stories of some looted works in the collection.<\/p>\n
The new collections hub page<\/a>, entitled \u201cHow have objects come to be in the V&A?\u201d, points out that \u201cfor some objects, their journeys have involved known histories of violence, coercion or injustice, while for others there remains uncertainty over exactly how they came to be here\u201d.<\/p>\n In an Instagram post, Tristram Hunt, the V&A\u2019s director, says: \u201cThe product of detailed scholarship and research by V&A staff, the site speaks to our institutional commitment to accountability and transparency as we continue to operate under the 1983 National Heritage Act which prevents the legal deaccession of museum artefacts.\u201d The act stipulates that an object can only be deaccessioned from the V&A if it meets certain criteria, for example of it is a duplicate, irreparably damaged or transferred to another national collection.<\/p>\n The new V&A site was launched on International Provenance Research Day\u00a0(8 April), an event during which museums around the world highlight and share the work they are doing to trace the histories of their objects. The day is organised by the Research Association for Provenance Research, which is described<\/a> on its website as \u201ca nonprofit membership organisation for the promotion of provenance research in all its interdisciplinary variety\u201d.<\/p>\n A V&A spokesperson says that the new collections page compiles existing articles along with a newly published piece about the museum\u2019s Ethiopian collections. The landing page also features a selection of objects from the collection that speak to a variety of provenance themes.<\/p>\n Hunt says the new webpage includes \u201csuperb essays\u201d on the Asante Regalia<\/a>, now on display at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, Ghana; the Maqdala material looted in 1868 from Ethiopia, and a 4,250-year-old Anatolian gold ewer from the Gilbert Collection which was returned to Turkey<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n