Provenance Information

[David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, California], by the late 1950s; private collection, Los Angeles, California, by 1980; [Sotheby’s, New York, Pre-Columbian Art, Nov. 25, 1996, sale no. 6921, lot no. 187, reproduced]; by private sale through Sotheby’s to Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Dec. 15, 1997

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

Karl Herbert Mayer, Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance in the United States, Ramona, 1980, pp.37-38; illustrated in Mayer, Maya Monuments, Supplement I, Berlin, 1987, pl. 34.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this Maya panel in two sections was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1950s. Per the provenance published in Karl Herbert Mayer’s Maya Monuments, the panels were in the possession of David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, California, by the late 1950s. This fact is corroborated by the provenance included in the auction catalogue for Sotheby’s Pre-Columbian Art auction (sale no. 6921) on November 25, 1996: “Primus/Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, acquired in the late 1950s.” The piece was published twice by Karl Herbert Mayer (1980, 1987). The panels cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. SAM’s Pre-Columbian collection has very few works of scale, and this monumental piece would add a unique example of architectural art and offer an opportunity to present important themes of Maya iconography.