Roman intaglios, and carved ambers. There are also small but significant collections of Greek and Roman jewelry, vessels in precious metals and glass, Roman wall paintings, mosaics, lamps, and inscriptions.

To encourage and support research and publication of the museum’s extensive collections, the Departments of Antiquities and Antiquities Conservation each year invite a number of guest scholars and conservators to study the materials on exhibition and in the collection. In addition to the original Catalogue of Ancient Art in the Getty Museum by C.C. Vermeule and N. Neuerburg (1973), the collection catalogs Roman Funerary Sculpture (G. Koch, 1988), Ancient Gems and Finger Rings (J. Spire, 1992), and Metalwork from the Hellenized East (M. Pfrommer, 1993) have been published. Four fascicles, or parts (of the thirteen planned) of the Corpus vasorum antiquorum are also in print, and articles on both the art history and scientific aspects of individual antiquities in the collection appear regularly in the annual Getty Museum Journal together with a list of all recent acquisitions. In addition to the journal, the museum also publishes Occasional Papers on Antiquities, edited by the Antiquities Department, a series dedicated to the publication of recent research on objects in the collection.

In 1985, the museum sponsored its first international symposium, “The Amasis Painter and his World,” held in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title organized by the Toledo Museum of Art and displayed in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Subsequently, the Getty Museum has organized five other international meetings on ancient topics: “Marble: Art Historical and Scientific Perspectives on Ancient Sculpture” (1988); “Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World” (1989); “Chalcolithic Cyprus” (1990, in collaboration with the Antiquities Department of Cyprus); “Ancient and Historical Metals” (1991); and “The Getty Kouros,” held in Athens in 1992 (in collaboration with the Nicholas P. Goulandris Foundation and Museum of Cycladic Art) and in Alexandria in 1993. Volumes of the proceedings of each meeting have been published.

One of the Getty Museum’s strongest commitments is to education, and the Departments of Antiquities and Antiquities Conservation have explored new ways to make the ancient collections more accessible to the diverse public that the institution serves. Each year, the departments host a number of seminars, lectures, and at least one lecture series on archaeological topics. The museum developed and installed one of the first truly interactive video disc programs, Greek Vases, in 1985, and object conservation was the subject of a special exhibition in 1992, “Preserving the Past,” which gave clear demonstrations of the techniques of analysis, cleaning, restoration, and installation of ancient artifacts. The larger issue of site conservation was the subject of the exhibition “In the Tomb of Nefertari: The Conservation of the Wall Paintings” held in 1992–1993. Dedicated to the preservation of sites and monuments around the world, the Getty Conservation Institute completed six years of conservation work on Nefertari’s great tomb in 1992, and the exhibition explored the complex problems presented by this monument, the meticulous studies undertaken before decisions were made on the conservation solutions, the implementation of those solutions, and the development of a plan for future protection of the site.

As part of its public programs, the museum inaugurated a series of dramatic performances in 1992 that were intended to complement the ancient collections with “The Wanderings of Odysseus.” A new translation of parts of the Odyssey was prepared by Oliver Taplin specifically for this presentation, and the production was staged at the museum in conjunction with the Mark Taper Forum of Los Angeles.

Although the museum itself does not sponsor archaeological excavation, staff members of both the Departments of Antiquities and Antiquities Conservation do participate in fieldwork and archaeological-conservation training programs. Conservators have worked on mosaic conservation and site-management training courses organized by the Getty Conservation Institute at paphos on Cyprus, and curatorial staff members have worked on excavations at Marion on Cyprus and Torone in northern Greece and on the publication of excavated material from the Athenian Agora.

Marion True