How to read a provenance

A provenance is not decoration. It is the argument that this object is what the catalogue says it is, made by showing where it has been. Read it as a chain and look for the joins.

“Private collection, Switzerland” covering forty years is not a link, it is a gap with a label on it. “Acquired from the above by the present owner” is a genuine link because it names a transaction. A gap spanning 1933 to 1945 requires specific research, and any reputable house will have done it and will tell you what it found.

Length is not strength. A short provenance that is fully documented is worth more than a long one built on assertion.