Art Provenance Research

The library's department of image collections is a study and research center predominantly for photographic images of Western art and architecture.

The Photoarchive is a study collection of over 1.2 million photographic reproductions of works of art from the fourth to the mid-twentieth century.

The archive holds around 300,000 photographic prints and other related materials, the still-growing collection contains photographs of artworks in many media ranging from Antiquity to the middle of the 20th century, focusing on the Mediterranean basin but including other parts of the world. Its spotlight is on Italian art, especially painting and drawing, of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance from 1250 to 1600.

The photographic archive of the Central Institute for Art History is one of the largest photographic study collections on European art history from the early medieval period to the twentieth century.

The Witt Library contains over two million reproductions of works by 70,000 artists. Archival boxes containing original photographs and cuttings from published material are organized alphabetically by artist within ‘national schools’. Each artist folder or box can contain images of paintings, drawings, and prints, of western art covering the period 1200 to the present day.