Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's "My Greek Alabaster Head of Goddess," in the Taste of the Antique

President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) and Jacqueline B. Kennedy (1929-1994), The White House, Washington D.C., acquired prior to August 28th, 1963

bequeathed to Maurice Tempelsman (1929-2025) by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis upon her death in 1994

by descent to the present owner

Robert Knudsen. White House Photographs. KN-C29734. Yellow Oval Room (on the mantel), White House. August 28th, 1963. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston (https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkwhp-1963-08-28-e#?image_identifier=JFKWHP-KN-C29734)

Mary van Rensselaer Thayer, Jacqueline Kennedy, The White House Years, Boston, 1971, p. 137 (memo from Jacqueline Kennedy to White House staff: "Mr. West. When the man comes to do Q. Room's spotlight over mantel - would you also have him put one in the Oval Room - to shine on our Greek head on the mantel. It would be nice to do this soon as the Pres. would like it")

Vogue, June 1973, p. 148, illus., on the desk in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's children-and-study room at 1040 Park Avenue (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vogue-june-01-1973-jacqueline-onassiss-library-redecorated-news-photo/1161596146)

The Last Will and Testament of Jacqueline Kennedy. Authentic Reproduction with Original Signature, New York, 1997: "I give and bequeath to my friend MAURICE TEMPELSMAN, if he survives me, my Greek Alabaster head of a woman if owned by me at the time of my death"

The present head, likely created in the first half of the 20th century, is carved in the High Classical Greek style of the second half of the 5th Century B.C. For a Roman example in similar style see  https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/1081736?fl=20&q=1081736&resultIndex=1.