Rebuilding the Past “The moment when a work of art changes hands is sometimes the only point at which it becomes visible.” Lauren Lessing Provenance is often described as the history of ownership of an artwork or antique. It has the distinctive privilege of telling the story of how the object traveled from a maker’s workshop to a world-class museum, or from an artist’s studio to a family’s residence. For those historical objects that retain an extensive provenance record, their journey .