Winchester, for its third, Wendell Garrett, while Don Sparacin and Betsy Pochoda look
on. Greg presented this vest to the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library at the
2022 Antiques Dealers’ Association dinner, where TMA received the annual Award of
Merit. Photograph by Laura Beach.
On March 16, 2024, we lost the brilliant, sometimes curmudgeonly, but always huge-hearted editor who joined me in rescuing The Magazine ANTIQUES and preserving its legacy, and I lost my friend.
As is too often the case with people in our lives, I didn’t really take stock of what Greg Cerio meant to me until he was gone. And so I find myself—along with the rest of the TMA staff, and so many others—trying to accept a future without Greg, while at the same time realizing the impact he had on all of us.
We have read about that impact in the tributes posted on social media, in emails, and in the homage crafted by our friends and colleagues at Antiques and the Arts Weekly. One fact about Greg is singled out for praise again and again: he gave a voice and a platform to fresh perspectives. He recognized the importance of integrating young people into this community. He valued young dealers, podcast hosts, video creators, and even one teenage writer. He listened. By this, he expanded our audience and attracted new patrons, and I can assure you that continuing to do so remains one of our main goals as we move ahead.
While the TMA family has spent the past weeks grieving, we have also been hard at work producing the issue you hold in your hands, one that I think would have made Greg proud. It’s a pity that he’ll never read the affectionate tributes to him in the Endnotes column [on pages 115–116], and I’m confident he would have mocked me mercilessly for my fumbling sentimentality here.
He would have reminded me to stop, to speak plainly and sincerely—something he himself was so good at—and to use this time and space to thank the many people whose work has made this issue possible. So, in honor of Greg . . .
Thank you to the diligent and gifted Sammy Dalati, who led the charge in assembling this book. Thank you to Eleanor Gustafson, whose invaluable counsel and command of style and grammar have brought consistency and integrity to ANTIQUES under four editors-in-chief over fifty years. And to the tireless efforts of Sarah Bilotta, who, on top of spending the usual countless hours fact-checking, contributed a feature article of her own—all while maintaining our digital program. Thank you to Martin Minerva, our esteemed art director, who always puts our best face forward. I must also extend my gratitude to our editorial assistant, Sierra Holt, and to former employees Danielle Devine, Kat Lanza LoPalo, and Katy Kiick, who paid tribute to Greg and helped lighten the writing and proofreading load as we brought our magazine to print. And I’m ever grateful to my colleague Stacey Rigney for keeping her cool and assembling the advertising side of our publication.
Thank you, finally, to our former editor-in-chief, Elizabeth Pochoda, who not only shared in my grief during Greg’s last days, but also consistently offers invaluable guidance, lending us her wisdom and expertise.
Greg and I viewed The Magazine ANTIQUES as a cornerstone of the community we serve. I’m proud that together we ushered the magazine through its hundred-year mark and into a new century. TMA will continue to look to the future while honoring the past, and will remain an advocate for the culturally significant objects around us for generations to come.
In conclusion, I ask you—reader, dealer, designer, and scholar—to support our mission. Continue to engage with us: read our stories, contribute new research, like, follow, subscribe, reach out to our dealer friends, and, most important, buy antiques! Let us make the coming years a tribute not only to Greg’s life, but to the legacy of the magazine to which he committed his final years.
