Seven Movie MacGuffins in Celebration of Provenance Research Day

It is the dark days just before the onset of World War II. Opposing nations are in pursuit of an object whose mythical power could tilt the conflict in their favor. There’s just one problem: its provenance—ownership history—has been lost through the centuries. No one even knows if it still exists.

But that’s where the researchers come in. Preeminent archaeologists—one good, one evil—race around the world, examining records, following up on leads, and deciphering clues until they uncover the object’s final resting place. In the end, the villain seizes it, and the hero’s only choice seems to be to destroy it, so it won’t fall into the wrong hands.

The object in question is the Ark of the Covenant from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), if you haven’t already guessed. And spoiler alert: our hero, Indiana Jones, doesn’t destroy it. At his core he’s a researcher and wants to know more about the artifact he’s discovered, even if it means tempting the wrath of God. And while this action-adventure is a work of fiction, it provides a wonderful example of two long-established tropes of moviemaking: the MacGuffin—an object in a film that the characters are pursuing, which drives the plot forward—and provenance research.

Let’s start with the latter. Understanding an artwork or artifact’s provenance can help scholars learn more about the history of an object and the people, places, and historical activities that were influential to its creation. Provenance also explains how the object changed owners or arrived at a museum.

Here at Getty, curators often conduct provenance research on objects in our collection. In addition, the Getty Provenance Index (GPI) provides open access to over 12 million digitized resources that trace the origins, movements, and lineages of art and cultural artifacts. Researchers, art collectors, and art enthusiasts can peruse primary sources spanning the 16th to 20th centuries, including inventories, auction catalogs, and dealer stock books to find more information about an artwork’s provenance. The GPI covers European and American art, as well as non-Western art and antiquities.

In movies, the investigation of an object’s whereabouts and history are sometimes intertwined with the MacGuffin plot device, popularized as a film technique by Alfred Hitchcock. A MacGuffin doesn’t need to be an ancient ark with divine powers to be relevant. It can be something small in the grand scheme of things, but its significance is what it reveals about the characters while they are in pursuit of it. The story of the characters—who they are, what motivates them, what choices they make along the way, and what they find important—are revealed as they encounter obstacles while seeking the MacGuffin. This is why it works so well in conversation with provenance: the artifact tells a story, and the story told is affected by the artifact.

In celebration of International Provenance Research Day, held annually on the second Wednesday of April, here are seven arty MacGuffins, whose provenance powerfully impacts the characters’ actions. Some of the films are considered classics, while others don’t take themselves too seriously, but all are fun and entertaining adventures that show how art objects can kick off epic stories. (Caution: light spoilers ahead!)

Boy with Apple by Johannes Van Hoytl the Younger, from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Standing amidst the vast art collection of the recently deceased Madame Céline Villeneuve Desgoffe-und-Taxis, Monsieur Gustave H., concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel, gives a quick overview of the painting Boy with Apple to the newly hired Lobby Boy, Zero Moustafa: “This is Van Hoytl’s exquisite portrayal of a beautiful boy on the cusp of manhood. Blond, smooth skin as white as that milk, of impeccable provenance. One of the last in private hands and unquestionably the best. It’s a masterpiece.” Soon, Gustave and Zero are on an adventure that involves prison escapes, shootouts, and chase scenes on funiculars, sleds, and alpine gondolas, all in pursuit of this singular work of art that defines their friendship and the rest of their lives in the war-torn Republic of Zubrowka. (Like the country, both the painting and artist are fictional.)

The Maltese Falcon, from The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A motley crew of liars, thieves, murderers, and blackmailers all clamor for a MacGuffin so great the movie was named after it. The Maltese Falcon—an antique, jeweled falcon statuette—and its mythic provenance could be real or speculative depending on who you ask…or who you trust.

San Giorgio Maggiore, Twilight by Claude Monet, from The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

This film is the only remake on the list and also the only one to feature a prop styled after a real work of art, in the collection of the Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. This MacGuffin pits Thomas Crown, a billionaire playboy whose hobbies include golf, sailboat racing, and art theft, against a no-nonsense insurance adjuster, Catherine Banning. Things become even more complicated when they engage in a torrid love affair, leaving each one to wonder whether they are being played by the other.

The Jeanne Toussaint necklace by Cartier, from Ocean’s 8 (2018)

The necklace in Ocean’s 8 is a re-creation of an actual piece that was designed in 1931 for the Maharaja of Nawanagar by Jacques Cartier and named for his creative director at the time. Although it was disassembled down to its elements in the 1960s, including the 135.92-carat Queen of Holland diamond, the original necklace was painstakingly re-created in prop form for the movie. It’s the perfect MacGuffin for Debbie Ocean and her cadre of all-lady thieves, who use the annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the setting for a caper of epic proportions.

The Fabulous Baseball Diamond, from The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

This comedic send-up of heist film stereotypes is done the only way the Muppets could, with tongue-in-cheek satire at every twist and turn. Fozzie and Kermit play “identical” twin brothers (it’s easier to see when they’re both wearing hats) who are also crack investigative journalists traveling through London in pursuit of thieves who stole a priceless necklace and plan to lift the Fabulous Baseball Diamond. The action culminates in a standoff between the Muppets and the jewel thieves that takes the name of the MacGuffin all too literally.

The Tarascan warrior sculpture, from North by Northwest (1959)

One of the greatest of Hitchcock’s suspense movies, North by Northwest has so many twists and turns that even star Cary Grant didn’t understand what was going on during the filming of the movie. He plays Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive who’s thrust into the middle of a vast (and confusing) conspiracy involving espionage, kidnapping, murder, and the acquisition of a small pre-Hispanic sculpture, which may be more than it seems.

The Holy Grail, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

The search for a great mythological artifact serves as a vehicle for a redemptive story about a father and son. When Dr. Henry Jones Sr. goes missing in pursuit of the Holy Grail, his estranged son, Indiana, must use his father’s personal diary—a lifelong record of his provenance research about the object—to find them both. As the two men get nearer to the MacGuffin, they are forced closer to each other, reopening old wounds and reigniting arguments from their past. But they’re also forced to come to terms with what they are really looking for out of life.

Of course, this is only a handful of movies; there are hundreds more that use a MacGuffin as a plot device. Next time you turn on one of your favorite films, maybe you’ll find a MacGuffin that was hiding in plain sight…or it’ll be easier to spot one when you’re watching something new!