ProvEnhance - Collection Risk Assessment of Artworks Acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1933-1960 (doi:10.34934/DVN/AGUMFK)
(Provenhance - First Check)

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Part 1: Document Description
Part 2: Study Description
Part 3: Data Files Description
Part 4: Variable Description
Part 5: Other Study-Related Materials
Entire Codebook

Document Description

Citation

Title:

ProvEnhance - Collection Risk Assessment of Artworks Acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1933-1960

Identification Number:

doi:10.34934/DVN/AGUMFK

Distributor:

Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive – SODHA

Date of Distribution:

2025-12-16

Version:

1

Bibliographic Citation:

Almstadt, Fenya; Leroux, Alexandre, 2025, "ProvEnhance - Collection Risk Assessment of Artworks Acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1933-1960", https://doi.org/10.34934/DVN/AGUMFK, Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive – SODHA, V1, UNF:6:rKAfC3m7TDrMrg4UfFTsyg== [fileUNF]

Study Description

Citation

Title:

ProvEnhance - Collection Risk Assessment of Artworks Acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1933-1960

Alternative Title:

Provenhance - First Check

Identification Number:

doi:10.34934/DVN/AGUMFK

Authoring Entity:

Almstadt, Fenya (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium)

Leroux, Alexandre (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium)

Other identifications and acknowledgements:

Almstadt , Fenya

Other identifications and acknowledgements:

Leroux, Alexandre

Producer:

ProvEnhance Project

Date of Production:

2025-10-21

Software used in Production:

R

Grant Number:

B2/233/P2/ProvEnhance

Distributor:

Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive – SODHA

Distributor:

Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium

Access Authority:

Leroux, Alexandre

Access Authority:

Data Management

Depositor:

Leroux, Alexandre

Date of Deposit:

2025-12-15

Series Name:

provenhance: Serie of data produced by the ProvEnhance Project (B2/233/P2/ProvEnhance) funded by Belspo

Holdings Information:

https://doi.org/10.34934/DVN/AGUMFK

Study Scope

Keywords:

Arts and Humanities, art museums (institutions), provenance, art collections

Topic Classification:

provenance

Abstract:

As part of the research project “ProvEnhance. Enhancing the provenance data of the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) since 1933 – Scientific study, digital valorization and narrative in context”, the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are examined as a case study to advance Belgian Nazi-era provenance research, aiming to progress it in alignment with the Washington Principles. Therefore, a preliminary risk assessment typically performed in the realm of Nazi-era provenance research, referred to as the “First Check” was conducted. The objective was to evaluate the necessity and priorities for additional research within the specified project corpus to aid in revealing possible historical injustices and to identify the rightful owners if needed. As a result, this dataset brings together the already available provenance information for the artworks included in the project corpus, offering a base for further exploration of object histories and the museum’s network involved in the acquisitions. Although the compiled data is not exhaustive to date, it provides a basis for future in depth-research. Publishing this dataset aims at rendering the histories of the objects, the biographies of former owners, and the underlying practices of the RMFAB accessible and transparent – all while situating them in their historical context. (2025-12-15)

Time Period:

1933-1960

Date of Collection:

2023-10-01-2025-10-01

Unit of Analysis:

Object

Universe:

Museum Collection

Kind of Data:

machine-readable text

Methodology and Processing

Sources Statement

Data Sources:

The provenance data compiled in the data-set is mainly based on sources from the RMFAB's institutional archives (https://historicalarchives.fine-arts-museum.be/). These include inventory books, object dossiers (Dossiers oranges), documents on acquisitions (Agenda files (up to 1939), acquisition proposals from 1940 onwards (PA-Series), minutes of meetings of the responsible commissions (RPV)) and the museum’s yearbooks. In some cases, external auction and exhibition catalogues were consulted, for example to verify information retrieved from the object dossiers. In the case of paintings that were assigned to the RMFAB by the ORE in the 1950s, the provenance information was retrieved from the database Cultural Goods World War II (https://cultural-goods-wwii.fine-arts-museum.be/en/home).

Origins of Sources:

RMFAB's institutional archives (https://historicalarchives.fine-arts-museum.be/) Database Cultural Goods World War II (https://cultural-goods-wwii.fine-arts-museum.be/en/home).

Data Access

Notes:

The copyright content in this project is available for re-use under the terms of a [Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Licence. Creative Commons licences, including the CC BY 4.0 licence do not provide permission for any users to process any personal data that may be included in this project content. Under the General Data Protection Regulation and any data protection legislation in place in the country in which you are based, you will have a number of legal obligations and responsibilities relating to the use of any personal data in this content. This means that before you re-use any personal information in this content, you should ensure you have fulfilled any obligations to provide privacy information to the individuals whose personal data may be included in this content. This is likely to include, requesting consent and/or establishing another lawful basis for processing or identifying any exemptions you are relying on for re-use of the personal data. You may also have to comply with data subject rights requests.

Other Study Description Materials

File Description--f5452

File: provenhance_risk_assessment_csv_format.tab

  • Number of cases: 591

  • No. of variables per record: 10

  • Type of File: text/tab-separated-values

Notes:

UNF:6:wMV+2QmnIasa9fiyGTO2Og==

File Description--f5456

File: provenhance_risk_assessment_xlsx_format.tab

  • Number of cases: 591

  • No. of variables per record: 10

  • Type of File: text/tab-separated-values

Notes:

UNF:6:HnBFpCoKya83PiwpZiMARw==

Variable Description

List of Variables:

Variables

identification

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:+Z2EC9JIaTeoDH/Arvr6pw==

artist

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:4YhS6ZifniKt8ilvbufiOQ==

title

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:JXRMfeia+XXH6T/XlZoRbw==

dimensions

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:YMqj/cgV2IJa17F/5wedEQ==

provenance

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:jxtrZE8cklIzKTSHUDld6A==

classification

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:7Q9RKg2Uz+8LmwarkfLOvQ==

classification_label

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:E8pvXKhqj3KlxLhFvb30rw==

collection_URL

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:0k5UxMsxbUpvY5yFJn6UhQ==

ulan_url

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:sxY9CWzz9jey9zKh00NdVQ==

ulan_id

f5452 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:ZHcg3rjZ5fz7Cg44WKWPUA==

identification

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:+Z2EC9JIaTeoDH/Arvr6pw==

artist

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:4YhS6ZifniKt8ilvbufiOQ==

title

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:FO4H039cBf4BW0zAqwNfrQ==

dimensions

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:CU2lQxHLnFoclV//UWKO9w==

provenance

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:n4/NMHIsr1xbsTUpr4yxWw==

classification

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:7Q9RKg2Uz+8LmwarkfLOvQ==

classificationlabel

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:E8pvXKhqj3KlxLhFvb30rw==

collectionURL

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:jwyLP3Pcrmf6yMrx5L2itQ==

ulanurl

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:eqRLbpeTRGL4pEdEoYswIw==

ulanid

f5456 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:VsOT1ShS2piD7VNHV4fbCQ==

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

provenhance_risk_assessment_codebook.md

Text:

Code book for `provenhance_risk_assessment_dataset.csv` and `provenhance_risk_assessment_dataset.xlsx`

Notes:

text/markdown

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

provenhance_risk_assessment_context.pdf

Text:

Qualitative explanation of the dataset and it's production method

Notes:

application/pdf

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

README.md

Text:

Human readable description of the repository and its files

Notes:

text/markdown