Newark Museum Returns and Buys Back Enslaved Potter's 1852 Jug

The Newark Museum of Art, in Newark, New Jersey, has agreed to hand ownership of an 1852 jug back to the family of David Drake, then buy it back so it can stay on public view. The Art Newspaper reported the agreement on 12 November 2026.

Drake, who lived from about 1801 to 1874, was an enslaved potter from South Carolina. The jug is a large brown ceramic vessel. It is the kind of object that can show visitors how people made and used everyday goods in the 1800s, and how many of those people were enslaved.

The museum bought the jug in 2022. It used the piece to teach the history of enslavement and enslaved labour in its 2023 reinstallation, a rehanging of its galleries titled Seeing America: 18th and 19th Century. Then the museum began talking with Drake's family in summer 2026 about the object's future.

Those talks led to what is known as restitution, the return of an object to the people who had a rightful claim to it. In this case, the museum restored ownership to Drake's descendants and then repurchased the jug. The jug will remain in the museum's permanent collection, the works it keeps indefinitely, and will stay accessible to the public.

Before agreeing on terms, the museum commissioned several appraisals, which are formal, professional valuations of an object. The museum agreed on a value of around US$135,000 for the jug, according to The Art Newspaper's report.

Drake's work has also sold at auction, where pieces are sold to the highest bidder. The auction record for a Drake work is US$1.65 million, paid for his 25-Gallon Poem Jar, made in 1858. That piece sold at Crocker Farm Auctions in Maryland in 2021. It is a different object from the 1852 jug, and the Newark deal does not involve that sale.

For visitors to the Newark Museum, the outcome means the jug stays where it can be seen. The museum's decision to return and then buy back the object keeps it in the building, and in front of the people it was displayed to teach.