Schweizer Zollstempel in der Provenienzforschung – Vorstellung eines Leitfadens

Swiss customs stamps on the reverse of paintings and their frames represent a largely unexplored source for provenance research. As the accompanying customs records were usually destroyed after ten years, these stamps often provide the only surviving evidence of the international movement of artworks.

This presentation introduces the development of a new practical guide. While archival records allow for a clear decoding of specific customs locations, establishing precise dating remains a major challenge. The talk discusses the ongoing process of using material characteristics to address this issue. Ultimately, the guide has the potential to be developed into a tutorial that provides the methodology to decode these specific markings and examine their physical properties, thereby closing critical gaps in object biographies.