The new research, which is published in a book, The True Face of William Shakespeare, next month, also questions the provenance of one of the other known portraits of the playwright and poet - known as the Flower portrait.
Working with arranger Jon Brion, West brought lush strings and even a harpsichord into hip-hop, and questioned the provenance of the bling he and his fellow rappers were wearing on the hard-hitting Diamonds from Sierra Leone.
A group monitoring the investigation on behalf of the victims' families has questioned the provenance and chain of custody of the ash bags.
A spokesman for the Syrian Information Ministry, Bassam Abu Abdullah, questioned the provenance of the photographs, telling the BBC that the investigators should be interviewing Qatar, which paid for the report and has provided support to rebels fighting the government of President Bashar Assad.
The question of the provenance of the sculpture has been rekindled because of a new exhibition in Naples that displays the statue.
(A glance through the New Yorker cartoon archives reveals the bird to be a rich comedic inspiration, with popular themes concerning road crossing, notions of free-rangedom, and the eternal question of the provenance of the chicken and the egg).
His question concerned the provenance of a campaign poster of Abraham Lincoln, which appeared on the brown gingham walls of Mr. Bilhuber's apartment, on Page 161 of the book.
But a single question about the provenance of "Robin Hood" and he was up in a flash, moving about the room and using a cane as a field commander might to plan his next campaign.
