Provenance Information

With James Singer, London, by Oct. 18, 1981 [this and the following according to receipt from James Singer, Oct. 18, 1981; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL, Oct. 18, 1981; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan, Washington, D.C., Arthur Sackler Museum of Art, 1992–1996; publicly promised as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997; signed a promised gift agreement for the work, 2008]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021.

Exhibition Information

Washington, DC, Arthur Sackler Museum of Art, Sculpture of South and Southeast Asia, Nov. 19, 1993 –Jul. 11, 1996, no cat.

Publication Information

None

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 James Singer, London in 1981, according to the receipt, a copy of which is in the curatorial files. Attempts to determine from whom Singer acquired the object were unsuccessful. The object was exhibited on long-term loan in Washington, D.C. at the Arthur Sackler Museum of Art between 1993 and 1996, and has also been displayed publicly at the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art Galleries in McKinlock Court from 2000 to 2005, and again in the Alsdorf Galleries of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan and Islamic Art between 2008 to 2018. In addition, the object will be the only example in the Art Institute’s collection of the heroes of the Ramayana epic, Rama and Lakshmana holding bows, seated under a tree, from the classical Gupta period (5th/6th Century CE) of Indian art. 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 July 18, 1996; 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 on Apr. 23, 2008.