MFA mystery: Whose provenance is it, anyway?

A former curator of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg is at the center of a controversy over an exhibition of Greek antiquities and their provenance, or documented history of ownership.

Michael Bennett, PhD, was the museum’s senior curator of Early Western Art from 2018 until June of this year, when he was fired.

From Order to Chaos, a 57-piece exhibit curated by Bennett that originated at the St. Pete museum in 2020, was being loaned out and was scheduled to debut at the Denver Art Museum April 17.

Denver curators, however, were alarmed at what they described as a lack of “detailed documentation” about some of the pieces’ origins. The museum ultimately turned the exhibit away.

On loan from noted collector Sol Rabin, From Chaos to Order consisted of simple “Geometric” works from 900-700 BC.

Works from “From Chaos to Order.” Image: Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

Establishing provenance is important because of the possibility that certain antiquities might have been looted, or purchased from disreputable dealers.

In 2021, the Denver Art Museum returned four pieces (three sandstone, one bronze) from its permanent collection to Cambodia, their country or origin, because full provenance could not be established.

The St. Petersburg exhibit, Denver Art Museum director Christoph Heinrich wrote to MFA administrators, caused similar concern over the chain of ownership.

In a letter obtained by the New York Times, Heinrich suggested postponing From Chaos to Order until the provenance issue could be straightened out.

“I am sure you are familiar with how the changing legal and ethical standards and perceptions of collecting and displaying antiquities are front and center for many world culture museums today, including ours,” Heinrich wrote. Denver, he added, had “experienced recent negative press for a small number of our legacy collections and associations with red flag dealers.”

Museum of Fine Arts director Anne-Marie Russell issued a statement to the New York Times. “It is our responsibility, as a museum, to safeguard and preserve works of art — objects that represent the highest aspirations of humankind — in perpetuity,” she said. “Yet we do so amid the reality of a dynamic and constantly evolving world.”

Bennett told the New York Times he was not given a reason for his termination, but that he had been escorted from the premises. The Times quoted a letter from the museum’s attorney, sent to Bennett’s lawyer: “If cause were required to terminate Dr. Bennett’s employment, MFA would have more than sufficient grounds to do so, as Dr. Bennett well knows.”

Bennett declined to be interviewed for this story.

Russell did not respond to a request for comment by the St. Pete Catalyst.

Belinda Dumont, a member of the Museum of Fine Arts’ board of trustees, defended Bennett.

“Everything that’s in art museums, antiquities that are there or anywhere else, may have very little provenance,” she said. “They have very little proof of who used to own it, and when. But that does not mean it was looted.”

According to Association of Art Museum Directors “best practice” rules (established in the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws), an object should not be acquired without clear, documented evidence that it had either left its country of origin before 1970, or had been legally exported after 1970.

“Ninety percent of these items were sold even before the United Nations and everyone else recognized it, before 1970 outside its country of origin,” said Dumont. “Which is very hard to determine sometimes. Especially with old things.

“There’s no way to trace who owned it, and how it got there. It’s a new concept to look for everything in context. Like you dug up a Greek vase, and you need to know who got buried in the place where you dug it up.”

After it left St. Petersburg, From Order to Chaos was exhibited at the Rollins Museum of Art in Winter Park, Florida, and the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. The issue of provenance was not raised at either facility.

Before coming to Florida, Bennett spent 20 years at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Controversy erupted in 2004 when he purchased, on behalf of the museum, a bronze sculpture known today as Apollo the Python-Slayer. The sellers, it was later revealed, had somewhat disreputable reputations.

Although the piece’s provenance could not be established, scientific analysis funded by the Cleveland Museum showed Apollo had been out of the ground for at least 100 years – and therefore could not have been looted, in violation of the UNESCO decree.

In the Times article, Bennett suggested that exhibiting art with partially-known provenance, and announcing as much, might provide scholars with new leads.

“People often talk about orphaned art,” he said. “I believe they need homes. I believe it’s a good thing we know where they are and what they are for us to understand them better, and then we can have a discussion.”