What’s Covered in the Provenance Index

The databases that form the foundation of the Getty Provenance Index (GPI) include:

• Dealer Stock Books – Transactional records from prominent galleries and dealers, including Goupil & Cie./Boussod, Valadon & Cie. (Paris, 1846–1919), and M. Knoedler & Co. (New York, 1872–1970)
• Sales Catalogs – Auction house and dealer sales catalogs documenting works of art offered for sale in Europe from 1650 to 1945
• Archival Inventories – Legal records listing objects in European private collections and households from 1520 to 1880
• Collectors Files – References to over 20,000 Getty Research Institute files on collectors and collections from the Middle Ages to the 21st century
• Payments to Artists – Records of payments to artists in Rome between 1576 and 1711, highlighting patronage and artistic networks
• Public Collections – Provenance records from 1500 to 1990 for artworks in public institutions across Great Britain and the United States

Overview of Getty Provenance Index Resources

Dealer stock books are detailed records maintained by galleries and art dealers, documenting acquisitions, sales, and pricing of artworks. Included in the Provenance Index are more than 190,000 resources from the 15 stock books of Goupil & Cie./Boussod, Valadon & Cie in Paris (1846–1919), as well as over 190,000 resources from the 11 painting stock books and enhanced with purchase information from the 21 paintings and watercolors sales books of M. Knoedler & Co. in New York (1872–1970). These records are part of the Knoedler Gallery Archive.

Total Transactions by Year for Goupil & Cie. (1846–1884), Boussod, Valadon & Cie. (1884–1919), and M. Knoedler & Co. (1872–1970)

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Sales catalogs, typically published by auction houses and dealers, document works of art offered for public auction and private sale. This dataset includes records from Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia, spanning 1650 to 1945.

The Provenance Index encompasses over 12 million resources extracted from more than 22,000 catalogs, providing detailed insights into the sale of primarily paintings, sculptures, and drawings. These records include details from handwritten annotations and external sources such as buyer names and prices, enabling researchers to examine patterns of art acquisition and the evolution of the global art market. Sales Catalogs resources include links to digital copies of catalogs hosted elsewhere, and photocopies of most pre-20th-century catalogs are also available at the Getty Library. Contact Library Reference for more information.

Additionally, the dataset features bibliographic information for over 8,700 German sales from 1900 to 1945. More than 830,000 auction records have been digitally extracted, with links to full PDFs hosted at the Heidelberg University Library.

Number of Lots Offered in Sales Events by Period and Country

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Archival inventories are legal documents from private and public archives that list objects within households or private collections. These records, dating from 1520 to 1880, provide critical insights into the contents of historical collections in France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The Provenance Index includes over 276,000 individual records extracted from more than 13,000 archival documents. Photocopies of most of these documents are available at the Getty Library. Contact Library Reference for more information.

Number of Objects in Archival Inventories by City

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The Collectors Files database indexes approximately 20,000 folders containing information about international collectors, dealers, auctioneers, and art institutions from the late Middle Ages to the present. These records are particularly strong in documenting the history of collecting in Western Europe, but also include material related to collectors and collections worldwide.

The Collectors Files include both published and unpublished materials, such as photocopies of inventories, sales catalogs, articles, genealogical references, scholars’ notes, and similar resources. The files vary greatly in size and content.

Researchers can access the Collectors Files database in order to determine if a file exists for a specific collector's name or location. The physical Collectors Files, housed in the Getty Library, are available to Library Readers and staff after an initial orientation. Contact Library Reference for more information.

Collectors Files by Century and Nationality

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Artists' wealth, like that of most Renaissance and Baroque painters, was principally derived from what they earned selling their art. This database contains approximately 1,000 payments recorded in Rome between 1576 and 1711. Unlike resale prices or inventory evaluations, these records document direct transactions between artists and patrons, offering valuable insights into the socioeconomic lives of painters in early modern Europe. This dataset, developed from Richard Spear’s research for Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters (Yale University Press, 2010), began as a pilot project focused on the financial lives of artists in Rome.

Total Income of Highest-Earning Artists in Rome by Year

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This database provides detailed descriptions and provenance of paintings by artists born before 1900 that are held in public institutions across Great Britain and the United States. Covering over 95,000 records spanning from 1500 to 1990, it offers valuable insights into the ownership histories and institutional holdings of artworks.

The records encompass a wide range of collections, reflecting the evolution of taste, patronage, and cultural exchange over centuries. By documenting how these works entered public institutions, the database serves as a critical resource for understanding the movement of art from private hands to museum collections and the broader public domain.

Number of Artworks in Public Collections by City

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