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Sold! The unique research role of auction sale catalogs1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Deborah Kempe*
Affiliation:
Collections Management & Access, Frick Art Reference Library, Frick Collection, 10 East 71st Street, New York, NY 10021, USA
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Abstract

The Frick Art Reference Library has one of the world’s richest historic collections of catalogs of art sold at auction. Awareness and use of this collection has increased as independent scholars and the staff of museums rigorously investigate issues of provenance. Another factor in the increasing recognition of auction sale catalogs is their value as economic documents that may shed light on broader trends, topics that sometimes resonate beyond the field of art historical scholarship.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2004

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Footnotes

1.

This article is based on a portion of the talk given at the Art Libraries Section workshop at the IFLA conference in Berlin, August 2003.

References

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9. International auction house directory. 3rd ed. (forthcoming). Phoenix, Ariz: Gordon’s Art Reference, 2004.Google Scholar
10. See article elsewhere in this issue of the Art libraries journal. Google Scholar