Dauerleihgaben an Museen: Herausforderung und Chance zugleich! (Permanent Loans to Museums: Challenge and Opportunity Alike!)

In March 2023, the Kunsthaus Zürich adopted a new strategy for provenance research, extending research to permanent loans. The new strategy raises political, legal and practical questions of wider relevance to museums internationally regarding the treatment of permanent loans: How do museums’ obligations towards lenders interact with the obligation to conduct provenance research, and how do private and public lenders respond to requirements put forward by the Washington Principles, ICOM Code of Ethics or political declarations? What legal, data protection and financial issues arise by conducting provenance research on permanent loans? How can transparency in handling research findings be ensured? This presentation reflects on the developments at the Kunsthaus Zürich since 2023 and outlines the learnings for the current provenance research project on the Emil Bührle Collection (2026-2031).