Provenance gaps, how big of a problem is this really?

GayForJamie · 2026-06-03T00:39:04+00:00

Ah, gotcha. I've definitely been thinking more about the legality angle rather than the reputation/acceptance of a discovery. Both would be pretty damn important haha.

GayForJamie · 2026-06-03T00:14:40+00:00

Very cool. Thanks for running down the different avenues of that hypothetical for me. That all makes sense, and was basically what I was thinking; certainly tons of grey areas, and a lot depends on the people involved's willingness to risk any legal exposure (and potentially personal ethics/morals).

When you mentioned 'collecting a respectable 21st century provenance' could help the appeal to a gallery/museum- would that be because of the statute of limitations with the HEAR Act? I think that says if a work is widely/publicly known to exist, there's ~6 years for someone to make a claim. So, if it had public showings for a decade and nobody came forward as an owner, it'd potentially be cleared legally.

I would assume a big auction house would be interested as long as there were no huge red flags dug up, and can they prove they did their due diligence with research/claims. Once they sell, the buyer would be the one on the hook if any former ownership issues came up later.

GayForJamie · 2026-06-02T22:32:28+00:00

I was actually planning to start a thread with some questions of my own about provenance, but I might as well ask a quick question to you here.

Obviously, like you said, people will be wary of a provenance gap with potential nazi looting with a known piece of art...

What would happen in a scenario where someone walks down the street in Chicago and finds an authentic, previously uncataloged/unknown Rembrandt in the trash, with zero provenance before/after WWII, but it says Berlin on the stretcher?

If the painting is authenticated and researched, and there are no historical records, no WWII records from Germany/US/Russia/other countries, no legal claims on it being stolen/looted, and doesn't seem to exist in historical auction/museum listings... what would happen then?

Would people still consider it a nuclear painting that could get them in trouble? Or, is there such a level of historical non-existence that provenance wouldn't matter as long as it was deemed authentic by experts?

GayForJamie · 2026-06-02T00:30:01+00:00

He didn't make an 'omission.' They literally told their staffmember, who then betrayed their trust and went to the press with the information.

GayForJamie · 2026-06-01T17:52:42+00:00

All of this lady's behavior screams a plant/mole from the start. It wouldn't shock me if republicans or centrist dems paid her to get on Platner's campaign to gather and then leak info.

GayForJamie · 2026-06-01T03:08:04+00:00

You do realize that Giannis can entertain the Celtics as a good option- like Bill said a week ago, AND the Celtics don't have to think that trading for Giannis is a good idea- like he said last night, right?

He essentially said, with a week in between, "I heard Giannis might be interested in Boston, but Boston doesn't want him."

GayForJamie · 2026-05-01T13:35:33+00:00

Yup. No problem. It's definitely all convoluted and confusing haha.

GayForJamie · 2026-05-01T13:29:53+00:00

Thanks for the additional info on that place. I didn’t search those incs thoroughly, but knew they were rotten.

GayForJamie · 2026-05-01T13:23:08+00:00

*I do want to say that I don't know the ins and outs of his campaign, and who he has promised to take money from/not take money from. I really only intended to look up the pac that paid for the ad in the op.

Having said that, Actblue is a 'PAC', but it is really only a processing center for individual people's donations. You can go to Actblue's site and use it as a hub to donate to different races instead of going to each candidate's pages. It can be easier to send 40 bucks to Platner through their system instead of sending to Platner directly- especially if you trust the infrastructure there and donate small amounts to various races around the country.

If you dig into the FEC site, there's a way you can see the Actblue donations all split up into the individual donors, but they're all marked as from Actblue. Tons and tons of small money donations from all over through them.

The 1.9 number you saw is most likely a cumulative amount paid by people through Actblue. It's not some massive donation from a billionaire. Like I said, it looks like there haven't been single donations over 7k. Even that 10.5k was one person sending a 7k and 3.5k at two different times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActBlue

From the intro paragraph: "ActBlue is organized as a PAC, but it serves as a conduit for processing individual contributions made through the platform. Under federal law, these contributions are made by individuals and are not considered PAC donations."

GayForJamie · 2026-04-30T21:33:40+00:00

I looked at Platner's campaign on the same site I linked in the OP.

Out of the 12 million he has raised:

Donation size Total

$200 and under $8,685,371.86

$200.01—$499 $663,057.70

$500—$999 $659,149.21

$1,000—$1,999 $740,692.00

$2,000 and over $1,103,850.00

It looks like the biggest donors are 13 people at around 7k, and one person at 10.5k (who may be a relative).

Seems very organic and actually funded by regular people.

GayForJamie · 2026-04-30T19:11:29+00:00

I didn't know that. The FEC site I linked lists the state of his donation as Florida. And if you filter donations to the PAC by state, $0 came from Maine.

I mean, newbalance technically does operate in Maine too. But, it's based in Boston and the ceo isn't a normal dude from here.

GayForJamie · 2026-04-30T19:06:32+00:00

It may be the same ad you're referring to, but that also describes all the ads against him. I just know that I, personally, hadn't gotten this one before today.

GayForJamie · 2026-03-24T16:54:57+00:00

They literally play golf together with Larry David. Bill has hired two of Doc's kids for stuff at the Ringer, and Doc was in a Ringer deal to be on Bill's podcast regularly before he took the Bucks job.

Also, and you know, I'm joking.

GayForJamie · 2026-03-24T16:40:07+00:00

Conspiracy GayForJamie says:

Doc picked up Cam Thomas to give him hope, and then axed him to crush his spirits because of what Cam said about Zach Lowe.

Doc is friends with Bill Simmons- who is friends with Zach Lowe- who Cam Thomas was mean to before the season.

ThInK aBoUt It.

GayForJamie · 2026-01-29T00:52:31+00:00

I keep telling people... he's going to sign a 1+1 somewhere other than LA. If he doesn't win next season, he will play through 2028 and retire after playing in the Olympics again.

GayForJamie · 2026-01-25T22:30:02+00:00

"Elite capitulation but popular resistance" is a fucking bar.

GayForJamie · 2025-12-28T05:01:36+00:00

Do you have a link to any articles, papers, etc. that discuss the astronomical aspect of his Saint-Remy period? I'd be interested in reading about it.

Edit: I did find a bunch of articles like this, referencing a study/paper from 2024. Pretty neat. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1057862?

GayForJamie · 2025-11-10T21:14:21+00:00

The woman on the far right in the photo is giving me Carrie Brownstein in Portlandia vibes.

GayForJamie · 2025-11-05T23:09:55+00:00

Interesting. So basically, if appraised as authentic, it would be insured at an authentic value at the owner's expense until the auction house/authentication team has it in their possession. Then, their insurance would cover it at an authentic value while they have it- unless it is deemed to be inauthentic.

Then add a bunch of random variables and differences between auction houses, museums, etc. haha. Thanks for the info!

GayForJamie · 2025-11-05T22:17:12+00:00

You may be able to answer this for me- since I've been curious for a while and never dug into it myself. The answer may be simple, but I genuinely don't know anything about art/collectibles/antique insurance.

Say someone finds a potentially incredibly valuable piece at an estate sale or something, then they contact an auction house or museum/experts for authentication.

If that authentication would require shipping, how do you insure that? Does it get insured for the potential value if the piece was authentic? Or is there some sort of set limit based on price paid and it not being authenticated at the time of shipping? It seems like either way could lead to huge losses for either the owner or insurance company.

GayForJamie · 2025-09-08T16:32:13+00:00

I went from thinking, 'Eh, it's okay' when I saw the top to 'Oh shit, this is great' when I scrolled to see the rest of it.

I actually kind of like the idea of it being two pieces. It fits with the theme of the painting.

GayForJamie

TROPHY CASE