The roots of this publication reach back to 2012, when work began on the Antiquities department’s Provenance Research Project, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge the many colleagues and peers who have encouraged and inspired us. From the outset, Jim Cuno, Katherine Fleming, Timothy Potts, Richard Rand, and Robin Weissberger have been steadfast in their leadership and administrative guidance, and their backing has provided us with the institutional support to advance our research. We are particularly grateful to Stephen Clark, Margot Stokol, and Kim Wong, who have not only provided a vital sounding-board for our queries, but have shared their expertise with generosity and openness.
The core of our research has taken place within the Department of Antiquities at the Getty Villa. To work within such an environment of collegiality, curiosity, and deep knowledge has been the greatest privilege, and we are indebted to our colleagues past and present for their insights, advocacy, and friendship. Thank you to Jeffrey Spier, Verena Lepper, Jens Daehner, Claire Lyons, Kenneth Lapatin, Sara Cole, Paige-Marie Ketner, Mary Louise Hart, and Ambra Spinelli, as well as to Alexis Belis and Niki Stellings-Hertzberg for their initial provenance research contributions. We would also like to thank our past graduate interns Ruth Allen, Roko Rumora, Yusi Liu, Sierra Schiano, Alina Kozlovski, Jacquelyn Clements, Emma Sachs, Eric Beckman, Paula Gaither, Hana Sugioka, and Kutay Sen, and Marrow undergraduate interns Ella Gonzalez, Elisa McAtee, Skylar Masuda, Opal Lambert, Cristina Berron, Anthony Bui, Meagan Kim, and Sheridan Marsh for their support and contributions to the project. We recognize the Villa Council for their foundational support of our work.
Our research has brought us into contact with many different departments across the Getty, and we have learned much from the practical guidance, collaborative spirit, and technical expertise of Susanne Gaensicke, Marie Svoboda, Jessica Arista, Erik Risser, Colleen O’Shea, Ewout Koek, Jeff Maish, Susan Lansing Maish, and Eduardo Sanchez (Antiquities Conservation); Monica Ganio (Getty Conservation Institute); Jennifer Adam, Kanoko Sasao, Naomi Abe, and Debby Lepp (Registrars); and Tahnee Cracchiola, Rebecca Truszkowski, Niki Nakagawa, Manuel Perez, Ben Goddard, and Joanna Hernandez (Villa Imaging Studios). Brenda Podemski, Autumn Harrison, and Alex Bancroft have been essential partners in managing provenance data in the Getty Museum’s collection database and developing creative ways to link and share object histories on our public website. We are grateful to members past and present of the Getty Provenance Working Group, notably Carolyn Peter, Aleia McDaniel, Casey Lee, Amanda Berman, Nicole Block, Jennifer Scofield, and Miriam Katz for sharing research questions and findings, and to all our other Museum colleagues, who have informed our work in so many ways. We have also benefited greatly from many conversations with provenance specialists at the Getty Research Institute, notably Mary Miller and Nancy Um, along with Andrew Turner, Kylie King, and colleagues supporting the Pre-Hispanic Art Provenance Initiative (PHAPI), as well as Sandra van Ginhoven and members of the Getty Provenance Index department. We are grateful to Getty Research Institute colleagues Sally McKay, Sara Seltzer, Nancy Enneking, Jay Gam, and Ross Garcia, and to all of the librarians, archivists, Interlibrary Loan, and Special Collections teams for their incredible work. Likewise, we would like to thank the archivists and librarians all over the world who have shared their collections and research with our project, without whom none of this would be possible. Projects like this are only possible thanks to our colleagues in Getty Digital, particularly David Newbury and Adam Brin, who have provided guidance and support, and have made it possible for our data to become part of something much greater.
To Lynley McAlpine, Irene Romano, John Hopkins, Paul Davis, MacKenzie Mallon, Lynn Rother, Jacques Schumacher, Maya Muratov, Victoria Reed, Violaine Mwez, and Antonia Bartoli, and to the countless other curators and provenance specialists at museums and universities near and far who have provided keen insights, sticker comparanda, and wisdom, our endless thanks. Mireille Lee and the advisory group of Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance (MAPRA), including Nicole Berlin, Ann Blair Brownlee, Sarah Kielt Costello, Jack Green, Sebastian Heath, Morag Kersel, Carolyn Laferrière, Elizabeth Marlowe, Sara Mohr, Lisa Pieraccini, Alison Rittershaus, and Annie Shanley, have shared valuable exchanges. We are grateful for the provenance workshops co-organized in 2016 and 2018 by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Association of Art Museum Directors for fruitful discussions and the acknowledgment of the need to support research in this field, and for the numerous conference workshops and panels at the AIA Annual Meetings that have opened and continued the dialogue. Josh Goode, Justin Walsh, Lyssa Stapleton, and all of the other professors who have brought their students to the Villa or welcomed us into their classes, we thank you, as well as the docents, education staff, students, and conference participants who have provided stimulating feedback—you are the people for whom we have written this book.
It has been a great pleasure to produce this volume with our colleagues at Getty Publications, under the leadership of Kara Kirk and with the support of Nola Butler and Nina Wiener. The idea for the project was first suggested by Karen Levine, and we have been grateful for her support throughout. Our writing and editing have taken place amidst both the Covid pandemic and catastrophic wildfires, but our colleagues at Getty Publications remained stalwart and supportive in the face of renegotiated deadlines. We are especially grateful to our project editor, Rachel Barth, who has kept the project on track, providing encouraging support and valuable guidance. We thank Elma Sanders, who dedicated careful scrutiny to the text during copy-editing, Katrina Posner for proofreading, and our two peer reviewers for their feedback and advice. We are indebted to Nancy Rivera for her assiduous care and attention in gathering and documenting the images. Dani Grossman’s design has added richness and flair to our text. We are grateful to Molly McGeehan, Michelle Woo Deemer, and Jenny Park for overseeing the book’s production. For its development as a digital Quire publication, we are much indebted to the expertise of Greg Albers, Erin Dunigan, Alex Hallenbeck, and Alba Menéndez Pereda. Finally, we express our utmost appreciation to C. Brian Rose, Stephen Clark, and Stephen Urice for their written contributions to and support of this project.
Judith thanks her family, particularly her parents for encouraging her to take Latin way back when. To Michael and Aurora, she gives all of her love. She is also grateful to her Johns Hopkins provenance students and to her co-teacher Jacquelyn Clements for teaching her so much in return. Nicole is grateful for the support and good humor of her coauthors, who have taught her so much over the course of this project, and is ever thankful to her dear friends and family for their patience, love, and encouragement. David thanks his family for their enduring love and support and uses this opportunity to acknowledge—now from afar—all of his friends and colleagues at the Getty. You have provided us with a uniquely fertile environment in which to think and to grow.