The urgency with which museums pursue provenance research has increased in recent years. During the violent turmoil of World War II and the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of art works entered the international art market, sometimes illegally, as the result of Nazi looting from private owners, or through other illicit transactions. Despite efforts on the part of the Allied forces to restore, or restitute, looted or stolen art work to their countries of origin in the immediate aftermath of World War II, many works passed into the hands of dealers and entered collections and museums worldwide.

To see European paintings in the IMA's collection that were created before 1946 and acquired after 1932, please click on the alphabetical index above.