John Marshall

John Marshall (1862 - 15 February 1928) was an antiquities art collector, who together with Edward Perry Warren is responsible for enriching the Roman and Greek Art Collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and alone for that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Biography John Marshall was born in 1862 in Liverpool, England. His father was a wine merchant. Robinson hired Marshall as the Museum's purchasing agent in Rome, and the same year, Gisela Richter began her long career at the Metropolitan. Bliss offered to help Marshall in this new task, substituting Warren in the role he had in the previous business venture for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. By 1907 she was irreplaceable and she gave Marshall an ultimatum: she would continue to work with him only if they married. Marshall agreed on the only condition of their being a white marriage. Warren supported them and by 1910 he was back in England and they were all living together at Lewes House. Marshall bought three terra cotta Etruscan warriors for the Met and the museum opened a new gallery of Etruscan art, "the first time in an American museum that an entire gallery had been devoted exclusively to Etruscan and Italian antiquities." The gallery opened in 1933, 5 years after Marshall died, and in 1961 it was found that the three warriors were a forgery and they were removed from display. The Met did not replace Marshall in Rome and Richter took upon the task to buy works of ancient art until her retirement.

Legacy Today the John Marshall Archive Research Project (JMARP), co-sponsored by the British Academy (BASIS Strategic Development Programme) and Christian Levett, promotes the role of John Marshall as principal ancient art purveyor of the 20th century.