Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum has returned works by David Drake, an enslaved 19th-century potter from South Carolina, to his descendants. Drake, known for signing his large stoneware vessels at a time when enslaved people were rarely permitted literacy, is regarded as one of the most significant American ceramic artists. The transfer is being discussed as a notable example of museums returning cultural heritage to families of enslaved people.

The Milwaukee Art Museum has returned a group of ceramic vessels made by an enslaved potter to the potter's descendants. The transfer returns works created by an enslaved artisan to their family, making it a notable case of a US museum restituting objects in its collection through direct return to descendants rather than sale or transfer to another institution.