Provenance Information

With Spink & Son, London, by June 5, 1980 [this and the following according to receipt from Spink & Son, June 5, 1980; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL, June 5, 1980; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 17, 1997; publicly promised as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997; signed a promised gift agreement for the work, 2002]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021.

Exhibition Information

Art Institute of Chicago, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Aug. 2–Oct. 26, 1997, cat. 26.

Publication Information

Pratapaditya Pal with contributions by Stephen Little, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago in association with Thames and Hudson, 1997), 30 (ill.), 277–78, cat. 26.

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

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This acquisition falls within two exceptions: cumulative facts and circumstances as well as gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008. First, the cumulative facts and circumstances known to the Art Institute of Chicago at the time of the acquisition allowed it to make an informed judgment to acquire the object. The object was purchased by James Alsdorf and Marilynn Alsdorf, Winnetka and Chicago, Illinois, from Spink & Son, London in 1980, according to the receipt, a copy of which is in the curatorial object file. Attempts to determine from whom the gallery acquired the object were unsuccessful. The object was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997, and published in the accompanying catalog, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art (1997). The object has also been publicly displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago in the Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art Galleries in McKinlock Court from 1999 to 2005, and again in the the Alsdorf Galleries of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan and Islamic Art from 2008 to 2017, and again since 2018. In addition, the object will be the only example in the Art Institute’s collection of the four-armed god Vishnu from the classical Gupta period from around Mathura, India, from the 5th century CE. Second, the acquisition of the object was by gift and the object was on loan to the Art Institute prior to 2008. The Alsdorfs lent the object to the Art Institute of Chicago on Sept. 17, 1997; Marilynn Alsdorf publicly promised the object as a gift to the museum in 1997; and the object joined a larger group of promised gifts in an agreement signed in 2002.