On view
Head of a goat,
ca. 1–37 CE
This unassuming head of a goat has had a remarkable history. After it was purchased by Princeton University professor C. Rufus Morey for the Museum following the end of the Second World War, Professor Ernest T. DeWald identified it as an object from the Capitoline Museums in Rome, from which it had disappeared in the confusion following the end of the war. The director of the museum confirmed its ownership, and Princeton returned the head through Italian diplomats. In gratitude for the collaboration between countries and museums, and with the knowledge that “Billy,” as the head was called, was a particular favorite of Princeton students, the Italian government decided to gift the head back to the Princeton Museum. On behalf of the mayor of Rome, it was handed over in a ceremonial gathering of museum and government officials.
Comparative illustration: [Italian officials present “Billy” to Princeton University in a January 1954 ceremony. Photo: Princeton Alumni Weekly]
More About This Object
Information
ca. 1–37 CE
Europe, Italy, Rome
- "Recent accessions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University vol. 8, no. 1 (1949): p. 15., p. 15
- Frances Follin Jones, "Welcome back, William", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 13, no. 2 (1954): p. 23., p. 24 (illus.)
- J. Michael Padgett, ed., Roman sculpture in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University, 2001)., cat. no. 55
