Following the Clues: The Roy R. Neuberger Collection Provenance Project
ON VIEW: November 17, 2021 — April 24, 2022
Stewarding a collection requires not only the physical care of objects but also a lot of research. That detective work, using a wide range of tools, is critical for ensuring that the history of the ownership of an object—its provenance—is known prior to a museum acquiring that work by gift, bequest, or purchase.
Exceptions to this rigorous methodology often occur when objects are donated to a museum by its founder. These are the objects that tend to form cores of collections, as is the case with the Neuberger Museum of Art. Our permanent collection builds on the nearly 950 works that founding patron Roy R. Neuberger gave to the museum over the course of his lifetime.
The Neuberger Museum of Art and Neuberger Berman—the investment firm that Mr. Neuberger launched in 1939—share a commitment to continue our founder’s mission by collecting artwork from nineteenth and twentieth century artists and purchasing the work of living artists to advance their careers. This partnership took an incredible step forward in 2019 when the Neuberger Berman Foundation began funding the museum’s provenance research of the artworks donated by Mr. Neuberger.
As year three of the provenance project begins, Following the Clues showcases Roy R. Neuberger’s passion for collecting art through four fascinating research stories about a work from the Milton Avery Collection, paintings by Patrick Henry Bruce and Hyman Bloom, and mysterious pages from a fifteenth century illuminated manuscript.
Following the Clues: The Roy R. Neuberger Collection Provenance Project is curated by Provenance Researcher Beth Silver in collaboration with Assistant Curators, Avis Larson and Rebecca Elisabeta Marya Ribeiro, and organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY. Generous support for Following the Clues: The Roy R. Neuberger Collection Provenance Project is provided by the Neuberger Berman Foundation and the Roy R. Neuberger Legacy Endowment.