An Fischsaur from the Swiss trade - more was not known in 2013, when the permanent loan for the Department of Natural History was to be purchased. Ultimately, provenance research was able to give the green light because the fossil had been traded legally. In addition, the research provided crucial information about the origin: The fish dinosaur in the NaturWelten comes from Doniford Bay, Sommerset Coast, on the English coast, which is ultimately also reflected in the Latin name (Ichthyosaurus sommersetensis).

Colonial echo – the Hanover State Museum is one of the initiators of the project »PAESE«, in the context of which the five largest ethnographic collections in Lower Saxony researched objects from colonial contexts: The throne depicted is one of several hundred pieces that were collected during the German colonial period in Cameroon (1884-1916).

»Provenance open (questionable) 1933-44« – The painting »Evening Forest Landscape« was bought by an art dealer who was also supplying the »Sonderauftrag Linz« in the middle of the Second World War on a »Paris shopping trip«. It was not possible to determine who the work originally belonged to through provenance research, but a so-called Nazi persecution-related confiscation in France, which was then occupied by the German Reich, is more than likely. Descendants of potential previous owners could have the lost art-Database of the German Lost Art Foundation on the Painting by Alexandre Calame where the State Museum also publishes objects of dubious or unclear provenance.

Mussels and provenance research? Since 1973, the Washington Convention on the Protection of Endangered Species has protected endangered animals and plants. For this reason, newly offered natural history collections are checked to see whether parts of them may have been exported or traded illegally.

From Kassala to Hanover: The “pair of red leather shoes” has come a long way. In 1877/78, "Reiche's Caravan from Nubia" toured through Germany - in order to take onlookers into a seemingly authentic "Nubian world", the animal dealer Carl Reiche, based in Alfeld, Lower Saxony, exhibited not only animals, but also people. On the occasion of the demonstrations, a participant may have worn these shoes, which the museum acquired from Carl Reiche in 1879 and which could be associated with the “Caravan”. The Provenance Research Network has initiated a project to research the trading networks of the Alfeld animal dealers Reiche und Ruhe.

»Provenance clarified/unobjectionable«: Two graphics by Johann Jakob Dorner, acquired in 1934 from the auction house CG Boerner, Leipzig, which is proven to have also dealt in Nazi-looted goods. A look at the back of the sheets reveals the stamp »PA«, which refers to Paul Arndt (1865–1937), a collector of Jewish origin – but the National Socialists were not aware of this. In this case, the reason for the sale was not persecution, but Arndt's financial losses during the global economic crisis of 1929 - an example of the fact that each individual case has to be examined and evaluated separately.

Verso of the watercolor with collector's stamp »PA«