Joseph V. Noble

Joseph V. Noble (April 3, 1920 – September 22, 2007) was an American museum administrator, antiquities collector, and self-trained ceramic archaeologist.

He briefly worked for Philco Corporation, one of the first television stations in Philadelphia, before enlisting in the United States Army where he served in the Signal Corps Photographic Center, attaining the position of Assistant Chief of the Camera Branch.

[1] After the war, Noble returned to De Frenes & Company for a time, then became General Manager at Murphy-Lillis, a commercial film studio.

According to a New York Times article on Thomas Hoving’s appointment as Director of the Metropolitan, Noble’s new position was “designed to direct the business of the museum and to lessen the burden of the director.”[5] Noble, however, in a 1994 oral history interview described his change in title as “technical” and noted that his “duties were virtually the same.” He further made a positive statement about working with Hoving.

"[7][2] As an antiquities collector and self-trained ceramic archaeologist, Noble was instrumental in exposing the three Etruscan terracotta warriors acquired by the Museum in 1916, 1917, and 1921 as modern forgeries.

“Director Tom Hoving ’s job is to pull the Museum up to the sky; it is my job to hold its feet on the ground. Between the two, we will stretch the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
(Noble, 1994). [ 1 ]
“One member of the staff stayed behind to talk to me about a highly confidential matter. This was the operating administrator Joseph V Noble, the discoverer of the crucial evidence pertaining to the Etruscan Warrior which proved the black glaze could not be ancient. He was a man I never liked or got along with.”
( Hoving , 1996). [ 2 ]