Authentication
The Quiet Craft of Provenance
How ownership history shapes value — and how MELE specialists reconstruct it.
Provenance — from the French provenir, meaning “to come from” — refers to the documented history of an object’s ownership. For a painting, a piece of furniture, or an ancient artefact, provenance is not merely a paper trail. It is a narrative that links an object to the people, places, and moments that have shaped its journey through time.
At MELE, we treat provenance as a living document. When a specialist examines a newly consigned work, their first question is rarely about condition or attribution. It is: where has this been?
Research in practice
The practical work of provenance research is painstaking. A specialist might spend weeks consulting dealer archives, cross-referencing exhibition catalogues, or tracing marks beneath old varnish.
When gaps exist in the record, we do not paper over them.
Our catalogue entries describe provenance as it is known — and are transparent about what is not.
Documentation in the digital era
Online databases now hold millions of digitised auction records. Yet technology has also made expert scrutiny more important than ever. Documentation matters more today, not less.
