Provenance Research Fund

In 2023, France and Germany decided to create a joint fund dedicated to provenance research on sub-Saharan objects  in their public institutions. The French ministries for culture and for foreign affairs (ministère de la Culture, ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires Etrangères) as well as on the German side the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) have mandated the Centre Marc Bloch to run the fund.

Museums, cultural, scientific and academic institutions in both Germany and France hold substantial collections of cultural objects with great symbolic, artistic, historic or societal significance for the countries and societies of origin. Over the last few years, strengthening provenance research has been a major objective for Germany and France, as well as for many other European countries. France and Germany have sought to support making sub-Saharan cultural heritage more accessible again to the Sub-Saharan public.

In 2023, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, Germany and France decided to join forces in recognizing the importance of the appropriate handling of said objects. The creation of the Franco-German Fund on the provenance of cultural objects from Sub-Sahara is an integral part of a broader cultural policy seeking to strengthen and renew partnerships with Sub-Saharan Africa. The Fund seeks to promote research to further and deepen knowledge on cultural objects which are still insufficiently documented and often consist of very fragmented information. The search for provenance consists in tracing the history of the various owners of an object from its creation to its entry into the collections of an institution. This will promote a broader knowledge of the cultural history of these objects and the contexts in which they were acquired and circulated.

This Fund is a three-year initiative with an annual budget of 720.000€. Based on an annual call for proposals, it will support provenance research projects carried out by consortia bringing together French, German and sub-Saharan partners. The Scientific Council is responsible for defining the Fund’s program, project evaluation and selection. It is made up of nine highly recognized experts equally from France, Germany and sub-Saharan Africa.