Provenance Information
S. Osman Ali, Karachi, Pakistan and Washington, D.C. J. William Middendorf II (born 1924), Washington, D.C., by 1976; sold, Sotheby Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Apr. 21, 1976, lot 123, to James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, July 15, 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. 110.
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), 94 (ill.), 296–97, cat. 110.
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 of gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008 and cumulative facts and circumstances. 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 Sotheby Parke–Bernet Galleries, New York in 1976, according to the receipt, a copy of which is in the curatorial object file. According to the auction catalog, the object was previously in the collection of J. William Middendorf II in Washington, D.C., and, at an unspecified date, in the prior collection of S. Osman Ali, Karachi Pakistan. Attempts to determine from whom S. Osman Ali 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 acquisition is the only sculpture representing a seated Buddha in dharmachakrapravartanamudra (turning the wheel of law) from the Graeco-Buddhist art of ancient Gandhara. The acquisition depicts the Buddha’s first sermon after enlightenment; it therefore will contribute to a more fulsome story of Buddhism as presented in our galleries. 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 15, 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.
