Provenance provenance of paintings can help resolve ownership disputes. For example, provenance between 1933 and 1945 can determine whether a painting was looted by the Nazis. Many galleries are putting a great deal of effort into researching the provenance of paintings in their collections for which there is no firm provenance during that period. Documented evidence of provenance for an object can help to establish that it has not been altered and is not a forgery, a reproduction, stolen or looted art. Provenance helps assign the work to a known artist, and a documented history can be of use in helping
Means to an end something leading into something else, thus it is an end in itself. Means to an end In philosophy, the term "means to an end" refers to any action (the means) carried out for the sole purpose of achieving something else (an end). It can be thought of as a metaphysical distinction as no empirical information differentiates actions that are means to ends from those that are not—that are "ends in themselves". It has been inferred that all actions are means to other ends—this is relevant when considering the meaning of life. Immanuel Kant's theory of morality, the categorical imperative, states