From our inception, the Art Gallery of NSW has been committed to researching and publishing information on works in our collection. The Gallery has always conducted research into the provenance (the history of ownership) of the collection, and recently has paid particular attention to investigating all European paintings acquired after 1933 and created before 1945 that were or could have been in Europe at that time.

The Gallery has found no evidence that any of our paintings were looted or improperly acquired and provides on this website all known provenance information of all international paintings in the collection. In conjunction with other international and national museums, the Gallery has included in this section, a list of European paintings that have gaps in or no provenance for the period 1933 to 1945. The Gallery is cooperating with the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945 in London which has also included this list on its website.

It must be stressed that gaps in or no provenance by no means indicates that a work was looted or stolen.

This research is an ongoing project, and the Gallery welcomes any information on the provenance of works in the collection.

Works with incomplete provenance

From the entire collection, 41 paintings with incomplete provenance for this period have been identified. These paintings are included in the online collection section of this website. The works are: