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| International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) | |
|---|---|
| Name | International Foundation for Art Research |
| Formation | 1969 |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Leader title | Executive Director |
International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1969 to address issues of authenticity, attribution, and provenance in the visual arts. It has operated at the intersection of collecting, scholarship, law, and museum practice, providing research, advisory services, and databases used by collectors, dealers, museums, auction houses, and legal institutions. IFAR has engaged with high-profile disputes, scholarly controversies, and efforts to standardize practices across the art market.
IFAR was established in 1969 by a coalition of collectors, scholars, and professionals responding to controversies surrounding attribution and forgery that involved figures like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Clyfford Still, and Andy Warhol. Early governance drew on expertise associated with institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the National Gallery of Art. During the 1970s and 1980s IFAR confronted cases linked to dealers and galleries including Leo Castelli, Manny Silver, Sotheby's, and Christie's, while interacting with legal actors from New York County Supreme Court and federal agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Through the 1990s and 2000s IFAR adapted to digital research trends that affected stakeholders such as The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Art Basel, and the Princeton University Art Museum.
IFAR's mission centers on research into attribution, authentication, and provenance for works associated with artists like Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Frida Kahlo. It serves constituencies including museums such as the Tate Modern, Louvre, Hermitage Museum, and Museo Reina Sofía, auction houses like Sotheby's and Bonhams, and academic departments at Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, and University of Oxford. IFAR provides impartial reports used in disputes heard by courts like the Supreme Court of the United States, arbitration panels such as those convened under International Chamber of Commerce, and regulatory reviews involving agencies like the Department of Justice.
IFAR has developed and curated databases and bibliographies drawing on collections and scholarship from the Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Frick Art Reference Library. Its publications have appeared alongside scholarship in journals such as The Burlington Magazine, Art Bulletin, Art Journal, Apollo (magazine), and Oxford Art Journal, and have been cited by catalogs raisonnés for artists including Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Gustav Klimt, Auguste Rodin, and Edvard Munch. IFAR's archival materials have been consulted by curators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and researchers at Princeton University, University of Cambridge, and Yale Center for British Art.
IFAR offers authentication and provenance research relevant to disputes involving works attributed to Giacometti, Georges Seurat, Édouard Manet, Diego Rivera, and Joan Miró. Its work interfaces with scientific analysis conducted at laboratories such as those at Rijksmuseum, National Gallery (London), Courtauld Institute of Art, and the Laboratory for Conservation Science at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and with forensic expertise from entities like the FBI Art Crime Team and independent specialists who have advised on cases involving El Greco, Caravaggio, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, and Sandro Botticelli. IFAR's reports have informed restitution claims connected to events like the Nazi looting of art and the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program.
IFAR conducts seminars, workshops, and conferences attended by professionals from ICOM, AAMD, Cultural Heritage Protection, and university programs at New York University, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. It has collaborated with legal scholars from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and Columbia Law School on continuing education addressing case law such as matters before the New York Court of Appeals and policies influenced by statutes like the National Stolen Property Act. IFAR's educational output has appeared at forums including Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze Art Fair, Venice Biennale, and symposia hosted by the Getty Center.
IFAR has been governed by a board with members drawn from institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Morgan Library & Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and law firms practicing art law including those representing clients before United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Funding sources have included private foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation, philanthropic gifts from collectors connected to galleries such as Gagosian Gallery and Pace Gallery, and project grants from entities like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and government cultural agencies such as National Endowment for the Arts.
IFAR has been involved, directly or through its publications and databases, in controversies and litigation connected to works attributed to Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Hans Holbein, and Gustav Klimt. Its influence extends to provenance research in restitution matters linked to World War II, institutional collecting policies at the British Museum and Smithsonian Institution, and the development of standards followed by AAMD and ICOM. IFAR's legacy includes contributions to scholarship, reductions in fraud through improved recordkeeping used by Sotheby's, Christie's, and private dealers, and resources employed in academic studies at Princeton University, Yale University, and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Category:Non-profit organizations based in New York City