Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Benjamin Zucker, New York (by 1985–2014); Taylor Thomson, Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada [purchased through Les Enluminures Ltd.] (2014–2016); given by Taylor Thomson to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2016).

Exhibition Information

Exhibited in Cycles of Life: Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, the exhibition of the Zucker Collection held at Les Enluminures Ltd., New York, October 30, 2014–December 6, 2014.

It was subsequently shown in the exhibition entitled, Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffin Collection on view at The Met Cloisters, May 1 2015–October 18, 2015.

Publication Information

Sandra Hindman with Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, Riene Hadjadj, Jack Odgen and Diana Scraisbrick, Cycles of Life: Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Collection (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2014), cat. 8, pp. 70-73; Diana Scarisbrick, Rings: Jewelry of Love, Power, and Loyalty (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), p. 61, no. 77.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work has provenance confirmed to 1985, when it was placed on deposit, but not displayed, at the Walters Art Museum from 1985 to 2014. This work has been exhibited and published twice. This ring is especially significant for its status as the only early Byzantine marriage ring in the collection and for its linkage of the Roman and Byzantine cultures of late antiquity, when Christianity emerged as the dominant religion of the ruling classes.

Provenance Information

Collection of Benjamin Zucker, New York, by 1985; purchased from Mr. Zucker through Les Enluminures by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.

Exhibition Information

Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tenn. from Sept. 15, 2006, to Jan. 14, 2007; the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Fla. from Feb. 18 to May 13, 2007; Walters Art Museum, October 19, 2008, to January 4, 2009.

Publication Information

Scarisbrick, Diana. 2007. Rings : Jewelry of Power, Love, and Loyalty. no. 81, p. 63, London: Thames and Hudson, London.

Hindman, Sandra, Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, Reine Hadjadj, Mr. Jack Ogden, and Diana Scarisbrick. 2014. Cycles of Life : Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, Les Enluminures. no. 9, pp. 74–77, London: Paul Holberton Publishing.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work was placed on deposit at the Walters Art Museum from 1985 to 2013. It was displayed as part of the Walter’s traveling Bedazzled exhibition in 2007/8 and has been published twice. The Metropolitan Museum has some 25 Roman gold finger rings, mostly dated to the early imperial period. There is nothing comparable to this large and impressive Late Roman ring. It is significant not only in terms of its bulk but also for its use as a betrothal or wedding ring—a tradition that only became firmly established in the 3rd century A.D. It is a welcome addition to the Metropolitan Museum’s holdings of ancient jewelry.

Provenance Information

Collection of Peter Gottesman since at least 1994, when the work was brought to the Metropolitan Museum. Mr. Gottesman took the work back in 1995 and returned it to the Metropolitan Museum as a loan and promised gift in 1997. The amulet remained at the Museum since that time and entered the Museum’s collection as a gift of Mr. Gottesman in 2016.

Exhibition Information

The work has been on loan to and on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1997.

Publication Information

None.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The work has been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum as a promised gift since 1997. Precious metal examples of aegides are rare, and this work exhibits the cloisonné inlay technique restricted to items of high technical expertise.

Provenance Information

-1967 collection of Farhadi & Anavian, New York;1967 collection of Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York (purchased by Arthur M. Sackler from Farhadi & Anavian); 1967-2001 collection of Sackler Collection at Columbia University, New York (gift of Arthur M. Sackler Collections); 2001-2014 collection of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, NY (returned from Columbia University and transferred to the Sackler Foundation); 2014 collection of Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (gift of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation)

Exhibition Information

Columbia University, New York, [Sackler Collection], included in various rotating displays between 1967 and 2001

Publication Information

none

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Part of a larger gift from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation that, according to correspondence and documentation on file, was acquired by Dr. Sackler from Farhadi & Anavian, New York, in 1967.

Provenance Information

-1967 collection of Farhadi & Anavian, New York;1967 collection of Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York (purchased by Arthur M. Sackler from Farhadi & Anavian); 1967-2001 collection of Sackler Collection at Columbia University, New York (gift of Arthur M. Sackler Collections); 2001-2014 collection of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, NY (returned from Columbia University and transferred to the Sackler Foundation); 2014 collection of Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (gift of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation)

Exhibition Information

Columbia University, New York, [Sackler Collection], included in various rotating displays between 1967 and 2001

Publication Information

none

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Part of a larger gift from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation that, according to correspondence and documentation on file, was acquired by Dr. Sackler from Farhadi & Anavian, New York, in 1967.