Two hulking stoneware jars made nearly two centuries ago by an enslaved South Carolina potter were transferred by the Milwaukee Art Museum to the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust. The museum then bought one vessel back, while Drake's descendants retained ownership of the second and loaned it back to the museum, with both pieces set to go right back on public display in Milwaukee starting Wednesday.
The Milwaukee Art Museum and the trust finalized an agreement to transfer the two vessels, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Under the arrangement, the museum purchased one of the vessels back from the trust, while Drake's descendants retained ownership of the second and loaned it back to the museum for long-term display. Both works are scheduled to return to the museum for public viewing beginning Sept. 30, 2026.
Yaba Baker, described as Drake's fourth-generation great-grandson, said keeping both works on view will make Drake's legacy and lineage accessible to the public for years, per the same account. Kantara Souffrant, curator of community dialogue at the Milwaukee Art Museum, said the vessels help descendants of enslaved people gather family history, the Journal Sentinel reported.
How the Vessels Reached Milwaukee
The two jars arrived at the museum by way of the Chipstone Foundation, which bought them from an art dealer in 2013 and gifted them to the Milwaukee Art Museum earlier in 2026. The museum has displayed Drake's pottery since 2015. Chipstone and the museum began talks about an ethical and legally sound transfer after Chipstone received a letter from the Legacy Trust requesting the return of Drake's work, the Journal Sentinel's reporting shows.
The Dave the Potter Legacy Trust has worked since 2022 to seek the return of Drake's pottery from institutions around the country. Earlier this year, in July, the trust secured the return of Drake vessels held by the Georgia Museum of Art, and in 2025 it obtained vessels back from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, according to the Journal Sentinel's account.
Who Was David Drake
Born in 1801 in Edgefield, South Carolina, Drake was enslaved for much of his life and became a highly skilled potter, producing some of the largest stoneware vessels made in the American South during that era. He inscribed his name into several of his surviving vessels.
Drake's work has also been the subject of exhibitions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art featured his vessels in an exhibition of 19th-century African American potters from the South, and, according to USA Art News, that show — titled Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina — later traveled to Boston, Atlanta and Ann Arbor, Michigan after opening in 2022. Milwaukee's own connection to Drake's story stretches back further still: sculptor Theaster Gates collaborated with curator Ethan Lasser on a 2010 Milwaukee Art Museum exhibition examining Drake's life and practice, per October Gallery.
A Pattern of Museums Returning Drake's Work
Milwaukee's transfer follows a broader wave of restitution efforts tied to Drake's surviving pottery. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston agreed last year to return two 1857 works by Drake to his descendants, with one piece remaining on loan for at least two years, according to KEYT/CNN Style. That outlet reported the MFA called it the first time the museum had resolved an ownership claim involving art wrongfully taken under slavery in the 19th-century United States.
In that Boston case, the second vessel — known as the Poem Jar — was purchased back by the museum from Drake's heirs for an undisclosed sum and now comes with a certificate of ethical ownership, according to a listing for The Week in Art podcast. Drake's descendants have said they are weighing each restitution case individually, seeking what Baker called “more of an ethical ownership” that still allows museums to display the work, USA Art News reports.
Interest in Drake's pottery has also translated into rising market value. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas paid a record $1.56 million in 2021 for a 25-gallon jar, per KEYT/CNN Style, part of a sharp climb in prices that saw several museums paying six figures for his pieces in recent years. An estimated 250 Drake pots are thought to survive today, held by institutions including the Met, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian, the outlet reports.
What Comes Next for Milwaukee
Beyond the transfer itself, the Milwaukee Art Museum said it is discussing how to incorporate Drake's work and legacy into the local community, and it hopes to invite community feedback on that effort. The museum is in conversation with the Chipstone Foundation, the African American Art Alliance, the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation, Bronzeville Center for the Arts and the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, according to the Journal Sentinel's reporting.
Separately, artist Theaster Gates is giving a Drake vessel from his own collection to the potter's descendants, USA Art News reports — another sign of how the restitution movement around Drake's work has expanded beyond museum walls to private collectors as well.
