Blog Subscription via Follow.it

Showing posts with label Aubrey Catrone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aubrey Catrone. Show all posts

December 30, 2025

Tuesday, December 30, 2025 - ,,,,, No comments

Meet Our Alumni: ARCA PG Cert Spotlight Series — Aubrey Catrone, Provenance Researcher and ARCA Alumna

Welcome to ARCA’s PG Cert Alumni Spotlight Series, a collection of in-depth Q&A interviews conducted by Edgar Tijhuis*, highlighting the professional journeys, achievements, and ongoing contributions of graduates from ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Programs in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. Through these conversations, we aim to showcase the diverse paths our alumni have taken—across academia, law enforcement, museums, research, policy, and the cultural heritage sector—and to share the insights, motivations, and experiences that continue to shape their work in safeguarding the world’s shared artistic legacy. 

What motivated you to enroll in ARCA’s Postgraduate Program?

From a young age, I was very passionate about art history and history in general. I believed, and continue to believe, that every work of art has a story to tell. And that story is rooted in an object’s unique history.

As an undergraduate, I really had no idea how to turn this passion into a career. That is until the field of provenance research captured my attention - the perfect avenue through which to marry my interests. And it was the discovery of the ARCA post graduate program that I knew would help me turn my passion into professional practicality.

Can you describe a moment in the program that had a lasting impact on you—personally or professionally?

When my class visited the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, we saw evidence of looted tombs and pottery fragments strewn across the forest floor. This gave a chilling context to the laundering of art objects that have been ripped from their original locations and later emerge on the fine art market. And, it reinforced my passion for ensuring that art objects traverse the art market with a correct and complete biography.

What was your favorite course or topic, and why did it stand out?

While not a course when I originally took the course in 2015, but Marc Masurovsky’s provenance course has become a favorite of mine. Marc’s experience in the field is unparalleled. And, he fosters lively discussions where students can explore the intricacies of issues that are often reduced to a bulleted list of names.

How did the international nature of the program influence your learning experience?

The international nature of the program exposes students to a myriad of professional and cultural backgrounds. From those who have managed cultural heritage sites to law enforcement to auction house representatives, ARCA undermines the “victimless” crime narrative, exposing students to the myriad perspectives and long-lasting effects of art and cultural heritage crime.

Did the program change or shape your career path? 

Absolutely! I entered the ARCA Program seeking to better understand how I could enter the world of provenance research. During the program, I was exposed to foundational knowledge that I continue to use in my day-to-day practice. ARCA also introduced me to a community of professionals that helped shape my career path after the program. For example, I found volunteer and internship opportunities through the ARCA networking community. I am also still close with many of my classmates, even working with some on a regular basis, over ten years later.

What was it like to live and study in Amelia, Italy?

Given the location and size of the town, Amelia offered the perfect environment to live and breathe art crime while also fully immersing myself in a traditional Italian lifestyle.

What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the 2026 programs?

In my opinion, ARCA is the most practical post-graduate program focusing on art crime and cultural heritage protection available. All classes are taught by experience professionals with real-life experience in their course topics. For example, students learn how to identify and investigate red flags in provenance entries from experts who have worked on actual restitution and repatriation cases.

My advice here is to use this exposure to your advantage. The professors are in Amelia to share their knowledge and help train professionals who will advance ARCA’s missions. So - questions, network, and absorb what you can.

How has your understanding of art crime evolved since completing the program?

ARCA helped build the foundations of my understanding of art crime beyond the most well-known sensational cases or films. This is not entirely a world of smash and grab antics like most recently exhibited at the Louvre. In many cases that I work on, we are dealing with questions of fraud, misrepresentation, or lack of documentation. These are often crimes of opportunity that happen at all levels of the art market.

In one sentence: why should someone join ARCA's program?

ARCA welcomes attendees to a community that extends beyond the historic walls of Amelia in its pursuit to advance art crime and cultural heritage protection literacy.


About Aubrey Catrone

Aubrey Catrone is an art historian, appraiser, and provenance researcher. Aubrey earned an MA in the History of Art from University College London, specializing in the documented histories of art objects. With an art gallery and academic research background, Catrone founded Proper Provenance, LLC to provide her clients with the tools, not only to historically contextualize art, but also to shed light on attribution and legal title within the international art market. She is an Accredited Member of the Appraisers Association of America with a specialization in Impressionist & Modern Art.

Catrone has researched artworks including paintings, works on paper, prints, and sculptures spanning Old Masters to Ultra Contemporary. She has appeared as a guest expert on the History Channel and published her scholarship in a variety of publications including RICS Journals and the Journal of Art Crime.

-----------

* Dr Edgar Tijhuis is Academic Director at ARCA and is responsible for coordinating ARCA’s postgraduate certificate programs. Since 2009, he has also taught criminology modules within ARCA's PG Certification programming.



September 1, 2021

Wednesday, September 01, 2021 - ,,,,, No comments

New York Exhibition Review - Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art


by Aubrey Catrone, Proper Provenance, LLC

The Jewish Museum’s current exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art is dedicated to the art objects coveted by some of history’s greatest villains: the Nazi regime. Walking into the museum lobby on a cloudy Saturday afternoon (admission is free on the Jewish Sabbath), I found myself at the end of a long line awaiting entry into the exhibition space.  Surrounded by groups of all ages and backgrounds, we waited in an orderly fashion, taunted by the glimpse of a large Franz Marc canvas hanging just beyond the glass doors.

As a provenance researcher by trade, my intrigue was piqued long before I walked through the museum doors: in their review for The Guardian, Jordan Hoffman wrote, “rarely does one walk away from a gallery with a spinning head, thinking of the life led by the paintings, drawings and objects themselves.” And, Ariella Burdick’s Financial Times review argued, “this is not a show about how art is made but about how it’s kept and passed from hand to hand. Material things are haunted by their accumulated history, acquiring emotional freight along the way.”

Image Credit: Jewish Museum

Once granted entry into the exhibition space, the dramatically lit gallery introduces viewers to the idea of an artwork’s biography, not just its creator, but the journey the physical item takes throughout its existence from creation to owners, to looters, to restitution. Following the trajectory of curation, visitors are given a preliminary introduction to the destruction and sacrifice that arose from the Nazi’s systematic plunder of cultural objects. The wall texts and audio guide address topics ranging from the experiences of “degenerate” artist’s to Rose Valland’s valiant efforts working for the Nazis at the Jeu de Paume to the Jewish Museum’s own role in safeguarding the orphaned Judaica of the Danzig Collection. 

In support of this narrative, many of the artworks on display are presented with wall texts that offer a paragraph of art historical analysis followed by a brief description of how the artwork was looted and restituted. Other items on display, such as August Sander’s photographic portraits of his Jewish neighbors seeking to escape persecution, and a concentration camp ledger recording the names of thousands who perished at the hands of the Nazis.  This sobering reminder of the context of this exhibition adds an extra layer of gravitas to the exhibited art objects.  Of the 3478 human beings recorded in this single ledger, only 11 survived. Viewers are not just reading fantastical stories or art historical analyses. They are witnessing the afterlife of the attempted annihilation of Jewish culture and faith. 

For some paintings, such as Henri Matisse’s Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar (1939) and Daisies (1939), the journey was short and bitter. Both paintings were stolen by Nazis from famed French-Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg’s Bordeaux bank vault and were earmarked for Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s personal collection. The wall text indicates that the saga concluded “following the war, both were returned to Rosenberg and were later sold.” Other paintings, such as Max Pechstein’s Landscape (Nudes in a Landscape) (1912), were lost for decades, forgotten amidst dusty basements before resurfacing in institutional collections. Pechstein’s Landscape was restituted to the heirs of Hugo Simon, a German-Jewish banker, this year (2021!), evidencing the ongoing battle against Nazi plunder.

Max Pechstein’s Landscape (Nudes in a Landscape), 1912

The exhibition culminates with a display of contemporary works by artists Maria Eichhorn, Hadar Gad, Dor Guex, and Lisa Oppenheim. Each of the aforementioned artists seeks to shed light on the enduring legacy and ramifications of Nazi plundering while simultaneously shedding light on restitution efforts. Maria Eichhorn even put together a dossier of philosopher Hannah Arendt’s field reports, memoranda, and other primary documents from her time as an emissary for Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR). This dossier offers a documented view into the restitution efforts that took place in the wake of the Second World War. Visitors are encouraged to take a copy of the dossier with them. The unassuming booklet serves as a tangible record of plunder to take with them back into the real world.  

Image Credit: Aubrey Catrone

 Overall, the Jewish Museum exhibition offers a broad overview of an issue that is often sensationalized by the mainstream media. Afterlives draws viewers into a world of beautiful and sacred objects that were pulled from their owners and subsequently destroyed or traded by those in power. I had hoped that the exhibition would shed more light on the arduousness of restitution cases or even provenance research itself.  An untold number of art objects remain missing. The laws governing clean title vary from country to country (i.e., rightful ownership). And, there is no universal standard in place for conducting provenance research or due diligence. It can be a long and tedious process to follow the path of an artwork that someone has disrupted or tried to erase. However, I hope that each individual who visits this exhibition is left with a greater understanding of the work that has been done in this field and the work that is left to be completed.

* Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art is on view at the Jewish Museum in New York until 9 January 2022

Additional Image Credits: 
Image 1: Installation view of Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art, August 20, 2021-January 9, 2022, the Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by Steven Paneccasio 

Image 2: Max Pechstein, Landscape (Nudes in a Landscape), 1912, oil on canvas, 71 x 80 cm, Photo by Philippe Migeat.

Image 3: A dossier in the city. Photo of Maria Eichhorn’s Hannah Arendt: Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Field Reports, Memoranda, Etc., 2021.


April 6, 2019

Saturday, April 06, 2019 - ,,,, No comments

Interview with Aubrey Catrone, ARCA's 2018 Program Assistant

By Edgar Tijhuis

In 2019, the ARCA program will be held from May 31 through August 15, 2019 in the heart of Umbria in Amelia, Italy. In the months up to the start of the program, a number of this years professors is as well as other staff of ARCA will interviewed. This time I speak with Aubrey Catrone, who served as ARCA's program assistant for the 2018 program.

Can you tell us something about your background?

Can you tell us something about your background? Growing up in Boston, in the shadow of the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist, I have always had a strong passion for the intersection of art, history, and crime. It is this enduring multidisciplinary approach to the art world that has helped shape my career and development as a provenance researcher. From an academic standpoint, I predominantly focused on the history of the Second World War, the French language, art crime, and art history. When I first attended the ARCA Postgraduate Program, it helped broaden my knowledge of the art market. It also further piqued my interest regarding the restitution of art looted in France during the Second World War. My MA in History of Art from University College London enabled me to explore my relationship with the history of art objects. In between what has undoubtedly been thousands of trips to the library, I have worked in art galleries and with art advisories, private collectors, non-profits, and academics. 

You have been ARCA's program assistant in the 2018. Can you tell us about your experiences in this role in Amelia?

Having stayed in Amelia as a participant and an alumna prior to this summer, working as the Program Assistant was definitely quite a shift in my experience with ARCA and Amelia in general. Serving as a critical point of contact for visitors, professors and students meant that I became far more acquainted with the city than I had been before. I can tell you the perfect route to take to get to where you need to go on festival days. I know which bar has the best WiFi. And, I’ve learned enough Italian to confidently travel throughout the countryside on my own. 

In anticipation of a summer in Italy, what do you recommend for participants to prepare for a summer of study in a small town? 

Patience. Amelia is an old city that enchants with its many charms but also infuriates you. Don’t panic when the internet cuts out and a project is due. In the fast-paced, electronically dominated society that we live in, remember to take a breath, smell the sunflowers, and enjoy the opportunity to unplug for a bit. Lynda Albertson, ARCA's CEO, also reminds participants that their largest retrievable databases are their professors as well as their fellow program participants. These sources can be accessed without the need for gigabyte data plans or modern technological accoutrements.

What makes the yearly ARCA PG Cert program unique? 

It is one of the only places in the world where postgraduate students of all ages can come to learn from and interact with world-renowned experts in the field of art crime and cultural heritage protection. Unlike programs in larger cities such as Rome, where teachers and students alike leave the classroom and go their separate ways, Amelia is small enough to bring everyone together on daily basis. Unlike large university settings, it’s a truly intimate environment where the experts are always accessible to share their knowledge and advice beyond the classroom, whether it's over coffee, dinner, or wine. It’s an enriching experience that endures beyond the summer months. 

Is it also possible to audit just one or two of the classes of the program? 

While each course can stand alone, the organisation of the summer program crescendos. For those looking for the full immersion experience, each course builds upon the next to create an in-depth understanding of art crime and cultural heritage protection. But, if someone has singular interests or goals, or less liberty to spend a full summer abroad, the opportunity to audit a single course can also provide unique benefits. 

While the participants always learn a lot in Amelia, what do you learn from them? 

With so many backgrounds and ages represented each year, everyone comes to Amelia with their own academic interests and cultural backgrounds. Over the summer months, Amelia becomes a melting pot for the sharing of ideas. I have heard stories ranging from archaeological digs in Syria, to the ofttimes unbelievable anecdotes of art detectives, to the way New Zealand smells in the summertime.

Which course in the program would you love to follow yourself and why? 

I’m always torn by this question. Marc Masurovsky’s work with provenance and Holocaust-era assets is something I am continually fascinated by and constantly starved to absorb. However, my summer schedule has yet to align with Christos Tsirogiannis’s course on illicit antiquities, a fascinating subject, and one I would be incredibly interested to incorporate into my research capabilities. 

What is your experience with the ARCA conference in June? 

The breadth of subject-matter covered over a single weekend by an international group of academics and experts is unprecedented. Speakers hail from the world’s most prestigious cultural heritage institutions while also including accomplished independent researchers. But, there is also time to enjoy the Italian countryside with organised dinners and cocktails, offering the opportunity to converse with colleagues in a relaxed social environment set against an Umbrian vista. 

Is there anything you can recommend for future students to do in Amelia or Umbria? 

I would always suggest that participants take advantage of the immersive experience. Become an Amerini (the name for the locals of Amelia). Hike through blooming sunflowers. Decorate the streets during Corpus Domini. Try as many local delicacies as your palette allows (affordable truffles and freshly made cheese are not easily attainable luxuries outside of Italy). Go on excursions. And, above all, be curious while you have the chance.

For a detailed prospectus and application materials or for general questions about this postgraduate program please contact us at education@artcrimeresearch.org

Edgar Tijhuis serves as the Academic Director at ARCA and is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana (Slovenia). He is responsible for the postgraduate certificate program in the study of art crime and cultural heritage protection and since 2009, has taught criminology modules within the ARCA program.

January 13, 2016

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 - ,, No comments

Should the Looting Legacy Enter the Museum?

By Aubrey Catrone, ARCA 2015 Alumna

MFA Exhibition Visitors: Class Distinctions, Image Credit MFA Website
The Nazi hunt for the work of Johannes Vermeer is not a long buried secret. It has been immortalized within a number of academic works and has found its way to mainstream media. Both Lynn H. Nicholas and Robert M. Edsel intimate an unspoken rivalry between Reichmarshall Hermann Georing and Hitler over the works of the Dutch Master that were uncovered during the pervasive looting of World War II. For, Vermeer was considered a champion of Germanic culture. In a world built upon the legacy of the great Italian masters, Hitler clung to Vermeer as the savior of his vision for cultural purity. For this reason, Vermeer's surviving works, if discovered amongst the loot, were to be considered revered above all else.

It was through this historical lens that I contextualized Vermeer’s The Astronomer, within the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s (MFA) special exhibit, “Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer.” This work was, arguably, one of Hitler’s most prized acquisitions during World War II. Having been seized from the Rothschilds, the German dictator believed The Astronomer epitomized the superiority of the Germanic peoples. 

Discreetly nestled on a temporary wall, painted a calming grey, so as not to detract from the beauty of the piece, the Astronomer, sat engrossed in his studies. The painting seemed to serve as a juxtaposition between the role of scientists in Dutch society during the 17th-century, and their wealthy counterparts who, while amateurs, yearned to immerse themselves in the evolving climate of discovery and advancement of the time period. In this manner, the placement and accompanying description of the painting captured the essence of the exhibit. Yet, there was no mention of the painting’s muddled past. The MFA plaque merely stated the painting was on loan from the Musée de Louvre.

I question whether or not a small mention of The Astronomer’s past should have been included within the exhibit. On one hand, it could be argued that such information could detract from the theme of the exhibit. Yet, wouldn’t it also bring a new dimension to the history of the piece as well as the exhibit itself?

This question is largely based in my observations of the patrons I walked with. One man asked if I had noticed a painting was on loan from Queen Elizabeth II's private collection. I overhead another couple debating not only the aesthetic aspects of a painting, but the historical details as well. Others simply took the time to peruse the gallery, reading each description in its entirety. These art enthusiasts, sacrificing a sunny, Monday afternoon to walk amongst vestiges of the past, were enthralled not only by the theme of the display, but by the lives of the paintings before them.

Informing patrons that an object was looted during World War II brings life to the artwork. For, the life of a painting does not simply end when the paint dries. It changes hands. It travels the world. It inspires emotion. Sharing such information, while somewhat controversial, not only creates the opportunity for people to engage with the art on a new level. It also preserves a significant period in art history. It is both a topic of conversation and an homage to the past. A single line of text is all it would require to preserve what should never be forgotten.

Sources Consulted: 

 Edsel, Robert M. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. New York: Center Street, 2009.

Feigenbaum, Gail. ìManifest Provenance,î in Provenance: An Alternate History of Art, ed. Gail Feigenbaum and Inge Reist, 6-28. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2012.

Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum: the Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the Worldís Greatest Works of Art. New York: BasicBooks, 1997.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. ìAcquisitions and Provenance Policy.î Accessed August 4, 2015. http://www.mfa.org/collections/art-past/acquisitions-and-provenance-policy.

Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: the Fate of Europeís Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)