From 2018–2024, I worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London – first as the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Provenance Research Curator, and then as Senior Provenance Research Curator, supported by The Polonsky Foundation. In these roles, I had the privilege of shaping the Museum’s approach to provenance across the entirety of its collections.

When I joined the V&A, I first investigated the Nazi-era provenance of the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection. I am passionate about sharing provenance research with wider audiences, so it was very rewarding that this research project culminated in the special provenance display ‘Concealed Histories: Uncovering the Story of Nazi Looting’ (Co-Curator: Alice Minter, Senior Curator of the Gilbert Collection). The first of its kind at a UK museum, ‘Concealed Histories’ helped to raise awareness of what we can learn by engaging such histories in a transparent manner. The journalist Emily Ding has written a comprehensive article about my work with the Gilbert Collection for the Virginia Quarterly Review.

Researching the legacies of the Nazi past remains a subject essential for all museums. In 2024 I published Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections: A research guide (University College London Press) in order to support colleagues around the world in this challenging area of research. In addition to outlining the key approaches and strategies for this work, I draw on my studies of Nazi Germany at Oxford University in order to provide the essential historical context in which to understand our research. I also draw on my experience of collaborating with other museums, sector working groups, government advisory panels, and non-governmental organisations to highlight the policy context. Thanks to the generous support of the David Berg Foundation, the book is available as a free Open Access download.

To make important provenance resources available to researchers, I worked on various digitisation projects at the V&A, including, for example, the Nazi inventory of so-called ‘degenerate’ art and the annotated auction catalogue documenting the forced sale of the Emma Budge Collection. Both documents are now available on the V&A website with articles providing historical context.

Throughout my tenure at the V&A, I worked on a wide range of restitution and repatriation cases. My research revealed, for example, that a 4,250-year-old Anatolian gold ewer carried a problematic provenance. This opened the door to what became a very fruitful collaboration and exchange with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It was incredibly rewarding to work on this project, which culminated in the repatriation of the ewer to the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara.

The ewer’s departure from London left a gap in the collection, a gap which became the opportunity for an artistic commission: we invited the renowned metalsmith Adi Toch to create a piece which spoke directly to the history and ongoing journey of the ancient Anatolian artifact.

I also worked closely on the return of the Head of Eros, a fragment of a sculpture from the Sidamara Sarcophagus which has been described as the ‘Turkish Elgin Marble’. Building on our positive relationship with the Turkish Ministry, we developed the concept of Renewable Cultural Partnerships, which created the research environment that allowed for the reunification of the Head with the Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

These experiences made it clear to me that even difficult and protracted cases can not only be resolved, but can become the foundation for positive, ongoing relationships. I was therefore delighted that, in 2024, the V&A announced another Renewable Cultural Partnership, this time with the Manhiya Palace Museum in Kumasi, enabling the return of the Asante gold regalia.

Beyond these cases, I worked on a wide range of enquiries regarding objects from across the V&A’s collections, and contributed to numerous gallery and exhibition projects to ensure the accurate and appropriate interpretation of sensitive objects.

As Senior Provenance Curator, I co-developed and co-supervised provenance-focused Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) placements. It was incredibly rewarding to support doctoral students to illuminate the provenance of the Museum’s collections. The placements included projects on the East Asia Collection during the Museum’s first 60 years (Tullia Fraser, Co-supervisors: Anna Jackson, Keeper of Asia; Elaine Tierney, Senior Tutor, V&A Research Institute); and the South Asia Collection for the period between the arrival of the East India Company’s holdings in 1879 and the Partition of India in 1947 (Shreya Gupta, Co-supervisor: Divia Patel). I also co-developed a DTP research project into Ukrainian Cultural Heritage (Co-supervisors: Alice Minter, Evgeniya Ravtsova and Zoë Hollingworth).

These research projects highlighted time and again the often profound disconnect between the written records and the information available via the Museum’s digital catalogue. To begin to address this issue directly, I developed a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) project – ‘The Provenance of Asian Collections’ – with colleagues from University College London and the V&A. This uses digital humanities methods to create for the first time a complete dataset of the more than 165,000 objects in the V&A’s Asia Collections, so that this history can be analysed and visualised. Crucially, this research promises to unearth the hitherto hidden stories of marginalised dealers and collectors (Shuhua Tang, Co-supervisors: Dr Elizabeth Lomas, Dr Jin Gao from UCL; Anna Jackson and Richard Palmer from the V&A).

Many of these research projects highlighted problematic terminology in cataloguing, which is an important concern for museums. I was therefore proud to be a member of the supervisory team for the University of Oxford/V&A Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) research project ‘Applications of computational approaches in addressing problematic terminology within V&A Museum catalogues’, which develops new methods for the purpose of critical and reparative cataloguing (Erin Canning, Co-supervisors: Prof David De Roure, Dr Sarah Ogilvie and Dr Kevin Page from the University of Oxford; Pamela Young, Head Registrar from the V&A).

Throughout my time at the V&A I was jointly responsible with the Head Registrar for overseeing due diligence for acquisitions and incoming loans. Together with the Collections Management Lead, I devised and delivered internal due diligence training sessions.

One of the highlights of my role has been the wonderful opportunity to share my research with specialist and broad audiences. I have had the pleasure to be an invited speaker and panellist at a wide range of conferences, study days, and events at universities, museums, auction houses and professional associations. Many of the discussions I had and questions I was asked at these events directly shaped the scope, form and tone of my book.

At the V&A, I convened a provenance research seminar series,  organised study days (e.g., the British Museum’s International Training Programme) and conferences, such as a major event featuring representatives of all five European restitution committees, which I organised jointly with the UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport in May 2024.

Beyond my role at the V&A, I had the great privilege of contributing to a wide range of sector initiatives and working groups, including the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) Spoliation Working Group (the body that coordinates provenance research efforts at the national level), for which I developed and delivered a provenance research training programme; the Arts Council England (ACE) Steering Committee, which oversaw the development of new  sector guidance on restitution and repatriation; and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Illicit Trafficking Working Group, which deals with at-risk cultural property.

Together with MacKenzie Mallon (Provenance Specialist, The Nelson-Atkins Museum), I co-founded Provenance Connect with the aim to provide a space for provenance research specialists who are working within museums in North America and the UK to make new connections, to discover shared research interests and to open doors for collaboration. If you are interested in joining our quarterly Zoom meetings, please email us.

Prior to joining the V&A, I was a researcher for the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a not-for-profit organisation focused on the recovery of cultural property looted under the Nazis.

I studied Modern History at Humboldt University in Berlin and Somerville College, Oxford. I hold a doctorate in History from the University of Oxford, where I was Co-Director of the War Crimes Research Network at The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (TORCH), which culminated in the publication of a volume edited with my frequent collaborator Dr Jonathan Waterlow, titled War Crimes Trials and Investigations (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018).