Browse reading recommendations from experts working in the field of catalogues raisonnés.
Following our May 2026 Spotlight from Dr Renée Adams, “Gender Bias, Value Bias”, she has kindly shared the below papers and slides: to read, simply click the titles. Adams says, "I highlighted the dangers of treating market prices as a proxy for artistic value, especially in relation to women’s art. To overcome inequality in the art market, my findings suggest that market-based interventions, including collecting, must be complemented by initiatives that address structural barriers and biased perceptions."
"The Value(s) of Women Artists", Renée B. Adams
"Gendered Prices", Adams et al, 2021
Gender Bias, Value Bias - slides from Adams's presentation at the 2026 ICRA Conference "The Catalogue Raisonné: Representing the Unrepresented"
Read the text from this fascinating talk given at ICRA's 2026 annual conference by Dr Douglas Dreishpoon, Director, Helen Frankenthaler Catalogue Raisonné Project and Chief Curator Emeritus, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York.
Citation from an earlier panel moderated by Dreishpoon: “Roundtable: Creativity and Commerce,” moderated by Douglas Dreishpoon, Art in America, May 2013, 67-72. Participants included Michael Brenson, Amy Cappellazzo, Matthew Marks (in absentia), Jeanne Silverthorn, and Robert Storr.
Torie Reed, Bettina Burr Chair for Provenance at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum (2011).
Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (New York, 1994).
Patricia Marroquin Norby, “We Need More Nuance When Talking About Repatriation,” Hyperallergic April 19, 2023.
Barnaby Phillips, Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes (Oneworld Press, 2021).
Victoria Reed, “The Art of Restitution at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” Museum Magazine November-December 2023. [shameless plug]
Ariel Sabar, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (New York, 2020).
Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums (New York, 2007).
Nicholas O'Donnell, Partner and Art & Museum Law practice leader at Sullivan & Worcester
The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, by Anne-Marie O’Connor
Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collectors, Nazi Art Theft, and the Quest for Justice, by Melissa Müller and Monika Tatzkow
The Rape of Europa, by Lynn Nicholas
Unser Wien-‘Arisierung’ auf Österreich by Tina Walzer and Stephan Templ
Was Einmal War, by Sophie Lillie - essentially a catalogue raisonné of the targeted collections
Kate Fitz Gibbon, attorney for art and estate planning, specialist in Central Asian art law and author of “Native American Art and the Law”
Frederik Hagen and Kim Ryholt, The Antiquities Trade in Egypt, 1880–1930: The H.O. Lange Papers Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2016.
Reveals how Egypt’s antiquities trade was regulated and operated under official oversight. The Egyptian Museum itself sold deaccessioned objects and ran archaeological digs to supply its gift shop. From the late 19th century until 1983, Egypt legally licensed antiquities dealers, and under the system of partage, museums around the world acquired artifacts lawfully.
Justin M. Jacobs, Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures, Reaktion Books, London, 2024.
Shows how museums obtained many so-called “looted” items globally through legal purchases, official transfers, and licensed excavations. Jacobs argues that today’s claims of theft often rely on retroactive nationalist narratives rather than the laws and practices in place at the time.
I recommend the website Cultural Property News, www.cuturalpropertynews.org, free website with 500 articles plus dozens of longer papers and publications. Art and archeological news, policy and legal analysis.