# @gettymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CcyMhsPPSPE
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34228398-gettymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3ace10a23f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-04-25T18:35:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Getty (@gettymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/gettymuseum

## Caption

Provenance vs. provenience, what's the difference?

April’s theme for #ConnectingCollections explores questions about these terms. Provenance describes the ownership history of an object over time, and provenience refers to an object’s specific documented findspot. This ancient Roman mosaic shows how provenance research leads to new discoveries about the object’s original context.

First discovered in 1899, this mosaic was one of three pavements found in a private vineyard in Saint-Romain-en-Gal, a small town in Southern France. Three years later, an additional three mosaics were unearthed nearby, all likely from the same ancient villa.

These exciting discoveries were described in local newspapers and in national archaeological reports. Because the mosaics were large and expensive to excavate, most of the floors were reburied. Then, ten years later the site was re-excavated, and the remaining mosaics were sold or eventually donated to local archaeological museums.

The Brummer Gallery, based in Paris, bought the Orpheus mosaic in 1927 and sold it to William Randolph Hearst in New York the following year. In 1949, J. Paul Getty bought the mosaic and later used part of it to decorate the Roman Room of the Ranch House, his new museum in Malibu.

A surprising discovery was revealed when researching this provenance in the Brummer Gallery Records, digitized by the metmuseum—a drawing of the unpublished plan of the 1912 excavations! Long believed to be lost, this plan gives a fuller picture of the Orpheus mosaic in its original spatial context, reconnecting it with the other mosaics found at the site, now located in the museegalloromain in Saint-Romain-en-Gal, the britishmuseum in London, and in other French collections.

Learn more about the Orpheus Mosaic at the link in our bio.
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🏷️ #GettyMuseum #GettyVillaMuseum #GettyVilla #AncientArt #Mosaics #Provenance #History #Roman #Art #Orpheus

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## Tags

history, gettyvillamuseum, gettymuseum, art, gettyvilla, ancientart, provenance, orpheus, roman, connectingcollections, mosaics

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