Frances Parker Marzio

1947 - 2022

Frances Parker Marzio
09/13/1947 - 10/21/2022
The Board of Trustees and staff of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, mourn the passing of our distinguished, longtime colleague Frances Parker Marzio, Curator Emerita of the Glassell Collections, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Antiquities, in Houston on October 21, 2022. After earning her Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Miami, followed by an additional Masters degree at George Washington University, Frances began her career as a Fellow at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It was at the Corcoran that she met the love of her life, Peter C. Marzio. They married, and together Frances and Peter moved to Houston in 1982, when Peter was named Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Frances and Peter became partners in a three-decade transformation and elevation of the Museum and the city that they came to call home; their arrival ushered the Museum into an era of remarkable growth. In addition to building collections, physical spaces, and endowments, they worked together on issues of governance and oversight, with Frances serving not only in a curatorial role, but as a key aide to the Board of Trustees, most notably during the chairmanship of Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., and of Isabel Brown Wilson. From the early 1990s through 2016, Frances was the Museum's curator of antiquities, having focused on Greek ceramics in her undergraduate studies. During this time, she was also the curator-in-charge for dozens of significant exhibitions from diverse cultures, including "Splendors of Ancient Egypt"; "Treasury of the World: The Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals"; "The Spirit of Ancient Colombian Gold"; "Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption"; "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul"; "Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art from Ancient Nigeria"; "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs"; "The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning"; and "Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Alongside her ground-breaking work in antiquities, Frances directed the acquisition, conservation, and display of the Glassell Collections – the extraordinary collections of African, Indonesian and pre-Columbian gold that Mr. Glassell gifted to the Museum after the opening of the Audrey Jones Beck building, in 2000. Between 2003 and 2012, she catalogued the Glassell Collection's finest works in two publications – "Miniature Size, Magical Quality: Nasca Art from the Glassell Collection" and "The Glassell Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Masterworks of Pre-Columbian, Indonesian, and African Gold" – and co-wrote the catalogue "Gold of the Akan from the Glassell Collection" with Doran H. Ross. Frances also organized the traveling exhibition "The Glassell Collection of African Gold," which was presented in Boston, Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Moscow. Among the many important objects she acquired for the Museum, we can point with pride to the magnificent ceramics, marbles and bronzes from the ancient Mediterranean; to the great ceramics from Mesoamerica, and to the fine sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to her devotion to the Museum, Frances was a trustee of the Houston Grand Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On her death, the Metropolitan Opera noted that Frances "was admired by her fellow board members for her deep knowledge and appreciation of grand opera." HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers said: "She was an especially valuable board member of Houston Grand Opera, a relationship that began only after her beloved husband Peter's death in 2010. Frances adored the expansiveness of the opera, and she loved coming to rehearsals with me, where she would sit quietly and take it all in." When Peter Marzio died in 2010, MFAH Trustee Joe Jamail noted that Frances was "his wife, his partner, his adviser, his friend, the most treasured and valuable part of his life." We at the Museum in turn can say that her impact on this institution was nothing less than extraordinary -- a remarkable legacy of her high standards, indefatigable energy, exceptional eye, and unwavering commitment to the Museum. A memorial tribute to Frances Marzio will be held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on December 13, 2022.