Last refreshed: 2026-07-06
Source: Provenance Activities endpoint, part of Linked Art API 1.0, published under CC BY 4.0. This is a project summary; the upstream page is authoritative.
Purpose
The Provenance Activity endpoint describes higher-level provenance entries and the detailed changes that make them up. It is more complex than most entity endpoints because a top-level `Activity` or `Event` carries shared event metadata and then uses required `part[]` entries for specific transfers, payments, moves, encounters, rights changes, and related actions.
Required Top-Level Shape
A Provenance Activity endpoint record dereferences to one JSON-LD object:
- `@context`: Linked Art context URI, or an array ending with that URI for extensions.
- `id`: dereferenceable HTTP(S) URI for the provenance activity.
- `type`: `Event` or `Activity`.
- `classified_as`: must include `http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300055863` for Provenance Activity.
- `part`: required array of detailed provenance part activities.
Recommended Top-Level Fields
- `_label`: developer-facing label.
- `identified_by`: `Name` and/or `Identifier` structures.
- `timespan`: `TimeSpan` structure recording when the provenance activity occurred.
Optional Top-Level Fields
- `referred_to_by`: statements about the activity.
- `equivalent`: external identities.
- `representation`: visual works representing the activity.
- `member_of`: sets that include the activity.
- `subject_of`: textual works focused on the activity.
- `attributed_by`: relationship assignment evidence.
- `part_of`: broader event or activity.
- `during`, `before`, `after`: temporal relationships.
- `took_place_at`: places where the activity occurred.
- `caused_by`: event that caused the activity.
- `influenced_by`: entity that influenced the activity.
- `carried_out_by`: person or group responsible for the activity.
- `participant`: person or group that participated but did not carry it out.
- `used_specific_object`: object or set instrumental in the activity.
Common Part Fields
Every entry in `part[]` has its own activity type and can carry:
- `id`
- `type`
- `_label`
- `identified_by`
- `classified_as`
- `referred_to_by`
- `timespan`
- `during`
- `took_place_at`
- `influenced_by`
- `carried_out_by`
- `participant`
- `used_specific_object`
Provenance Part Types
Acquisition
- `type`: `Acquisition`.
- `transferred_title_of`: required object(s).
- `transferred_title_from`: previous person or group owner(s).
- `transferred_title_to`: new person or group owner(s).
Payment
- `type`: `Payment`.
- `paid_amount`: `MonetaryAmount`, including value and currency when known.
- `paid_from`: person or group providing payment.
- `paid_to`: person or group receiving payment.
Transfer Of Custody
- `type`: `TransferOfCustody`.
- `transferred_custody_of`: required object(s).
- `transferred_custody_from`: previous custodian(s).
- `transferred_custody_to`: new custodian(s).
Encounter
- `type`: `Encounter`.
- `encountered`: required object(s) encountered.
Right Acquisition
- `type`: `RightAcquisition`.
- `establishes`: required `Right` structures.
- `invalidates`: optional `Right` structures.
Move
- `type`: `Move`.
- `moved`: required object(s).
- `moved_from`: origin `Place`.
- `moved_to`: destination `Place`.
Promise
- `type`: `Activity`.
- `classified_as`: must include `http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435599` to distinguish the activity as a promise.
Transfer
- `type`: `Transfer`.
- `transferred`: required object(s).
- `transferred_from`: person or group from whom the object was transferred.
- `transferred_to`: person or group to whom the object was transferred.
Right Structure
Rights in provenance activities use:
- `id`
- `type`: `Right`.
- `_label`
- `identified_by`
- `classified_as`
- `referred_to_by`
- `dimension`
- `possessed_by`
- `applies_to`
- `part`
Incoming Relationships
The current Linked Art API set does not define incoming references to Provenance Activities. Instead, provenance activities link outward to objects, people, groups, places, rights, payments, and sets.
Meta Museum Notes
Meta Museum already preserves provenance wrappers and bundled `part[]` activities in ActivityStreams projections and record fixtures. Existing coverage includes `Acquisition`, `Payment`, `TransferOfCustody`, `Encounter`, `RightAcquisition`, `Move`, `Transfer`, promise activities, `Right` structures, ownership and custody transfers, movement origins/destinations, auction lot sets, commission/service payment details, unknown-transfer evidence, and rights establishment/invalidation. The strict ActivityStreams `Delete` lane remains separate: semantic provenance or destruction activity is not a tombstone unless a real upstream `404`/`410` deletion exists.
Meta Museum also exposes `/api/provenance` as a provenance-specialized Search API surface over stored record provenance wrappers. It returns Linked Art JSON-LD `OrderedCollectionPage` responses and supports `kind=acquisition`, `kind=custody`, `kind=transfer`, `kind=move`, and `kind=right-acquisition`, with optional `object=` filtering. Each result keeps the wrapper activity, the matching `part[]` entries, and the source object summary separate, so ownership transfer, custody, indeterminate transfer, movement, and rights acquisition remain queryable without collapsing back into a generic related-event bucket.
Test Ideas
- Preserve a top-level provenance `Activity` with `classified_as` AAT `300055863` and multiple `part[]` entries.
- Preserve each part type with its required object/right fields.
- Verify `Payment.paid_amount.currency` uses a `Currency` concept.
- Verify `Move.moved_from` and `Move.moved_to` are `Place` references.
- Preserve `RightAcquisition.establishes` and `invalidates` as `Right` structures with `possessed_by` and `applies_to`.
- Keep indeterminate `Transfer` separate from `Acquisition` and `TransferOfCustody` when evidence does not prove title or custody transfer.
- Assert `/api/provenance` preserves the same distinctions at search time, including `provenanceKind`, `conforms_to`, `partOf`, and `la:provenanceProfile` metadata.