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Researching the provenance of a Greek vase sent Duke Law student Nicole Braun on a trek through history as she documented a record of its colorful owners. “I think that's one of the exciting parts of provenance research — we think of art and aesthetics as this ‘pure’ thing that exists aside from earthly concerns of where it's from and how much it costs. But where an object travels, who owns it, and what they do with it, adds so much to the value and the importance of a lot of works of art.” As Braun found in her research, every step in the vase’s ownership has its own story.

For Object 2006.1.38, it all began with a Bonaparte and some oxen.

In 1829, the tumultuous relationship with his older brother Napoleon drove Lucien Bonaparte to live on his estate near the ancient Etruscan town of Vulci in Italy. One day while plowing his land, the oxen unearthed an ancient Etruscan tomb — Lucien took it from there. He ultimately excavated thousands of Greek vases that ended up in collections around the globe. One vase was gifted to the Duke of Buckingham, who was visiting him on a tour of Italy (while escaping from his creditors), and the vase travelled to England with the returning Duke.

The Dukes of Buckingham (father and son) turned out to be highly dedicated to living beyond their means, and the spendthrift Dukes could not hold on to Lucien’s gift. After the second Duke’s debts forced the liquidation of the family estate, “the amphora was sold during the notorious Stowe Auction in 1848, fetching a price of £14,” said Braun, an ordeal that was considered by the public as a “national disgrace.”

The successful buyer was county magistrate Purnell Bransby Purnell, Esq., a collector of art and antiquities who worked to expose abuses and lobbied to reform the treatment of patients in “lunatic” asylums. Following his death, the amphora returned to auction in 1872, and there, the provenance trail goes cold. Braun is now searching for auction records to identify the buyer.

The next time the vase shows up is in a 1951 auction, part of a collection belonging to Ms. Eileen A. Craufurd, a Scottish dog breeder and member of a Whiskey family dynasty, who, said Braun, “is praised as one of the most accomplished and respected breeders of Japanese Riu Gu Chins.” (According to Braun’s research, her home in England was adapted to accommodate over 50 dogs and a collection of toy-dog sized furniture.)

Two bidders vied for the amphora: the Manchester Museum in England, and Joaquin Gumá, Conde de Lagunillas, based in Havana, Cuba. The Conde was a great collector of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art (much of which ended up in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana). He won the bidding war, but learning of the Manchester Museum’s interest, he graciously offered it for exhibition there.

The amphora remained at the museum until 1962, when it was once again sold and found a home in Durham, N.C. The buyer was Dr. Christa von Roebel, a faculty member at Duke’s School of Medicine and a close friend of Dr. Walter Kempner, a German refugee who had escaped Nazi Germany in 1934 and joined the faculty of the medical school. “Dr. Kempner built a small, tight-knit community of German expatriates and refugees in Durham, many of whom shared his love for classical art and antiquities,” said Braun. The amphora ultimately ended up with a close friend and protégé of Kempner’s who in 2006 gifted it to the Nasher Museum at Duke — where it became the research subject of a curious and art-loving Duke Law student.