[Note: the articles are open access for ICOM members only]
In this second issue, we feature a range of contributions from practitioners, curators and academics; these include research articles, an interview and a book review.
The contributions in this issue can be broadly grouped into two sub-sections.
- The first half of the issue focuses on reframing provenance, critically rereading sources to uncover hidden or overlooked histories and contexts, and engaging with questions of ethics, restitution and reparations. Interviews with museum researchers provide reflections on methodologies, challenges and best practices in the field, and also offer practical insights into doing provenance work.
- The second half, reclaiming histories, highlights the recovery of histories and knowledge through collaboration, including with source communities, whose voices and perspectives have often been marginalised or overlooked.
The contributors question who has the authority to undertake such work, how provenance research itself is defined, and whose interests and perspectives it ultimately serves.
In the first issue on this topic (Provenance Research 1, Vol. 77, No. 307-308), contributors explored methodologies for reconstructing and critically examining the ownership, custodial and contextual histories of objects, collections and ancestral remains – particularly in cases where provenance information is partial, absent or incomplete.
