Provenance Information

Acquired by Simon Digby (b. 1932 – d. 2010) before 1985; Digby collection sold after Digby’s death by John Siudmak, London.

Exhibition Information

None.

Publication Information

John Siudmak Asian Art. Indian and Himalayan Sculpture and Thankhas from the Collection of the Late Simon Digby, New York, March 2011, no. 7 (sale catalogue).

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

The work has provenance established to 1985. Simon Digby, who was born in India to English parents, was a former curator of the Ashmolean Museum and later an independent scholar. John Siudmak has confirmed that he mounted this work for Simon Digby shortly before Simon Digby moved to Jersey in 1985. The work is exceptionally rare and would add considerably to the Museum’s collection because it represents a deity rarely seen in museum collections. Very few medieval stone images of Manasa are recorded and this is the only known repousee metal example.

Provenance Information

Christie’s Rockefeller Center, Sale #2024, 16 September 2008, Lot 377.
Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2000, Lot 139
Efforts to trace provenance prior to the Sotheby's sale of March 2000 have been unsuccessful.

Exhibition Information

Portland Art Museum, February 2009 to May 2010; September 2011 through the present.

Publication Information

Auction catalogue, Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2000, Lot 139
Auction catalogue, Christie’s Rockefeller Center, Sale #2024, 16 September 2008, Lot 377.
Ganesha: A New Elephant for Portland (Exhibition brochure, Portland Art Museum, February 2009)

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

In the past, South Asian art had not been an area of collecting focus in Portland, but today the region is home to a large, vibrant, and highly educated South Asian population. The Museum's commitment under Director Brian Ferriso to "bringing the world to Portland" and strong expressions of interest from the local community led to a search for a significant historical work of South Asian art, No choice could have been more appropriate than an icon of Ganesha, a deity widely worshiped throughout the subcontinent. As the "Remover of Obstacles" who is invoked at the outset of any major enterprise, Ganesha perfectly symbolizes a new commitment to South Asian art.
The Ganesha stele, as an outstanding example of stone sculpture of the Pala period, has become the core object in Museum narratives about Hindu art and culture. Large enough to visually anchor a gallery, it is also intimate and approachable.
As a stele, the sculpture has always been a free-standing object, rather than a fragment of an architectural monument.
The sculpture comes from the northeastern part of the subcontinent--the region that now corresponds to Bangladesh or the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal. This entire area came under the control of Muslim invaders at the end of the thirteenth century, which resulted in the widespread destruction of Buddhist and Hindu religious monuments. Over the subsequent centuries, the remaining Pala period brick temples were dismantled as the building materials were repurposed by the local population. It is highly likely, therefore, that the Ganesha fell out of active worship by the fourteenth century.