Provenance Information

1949, sold by a gallery in Nayarit, Mexico, to Adrian Green, Three Rivers, CA [see note]; 1977, sold by Adrian Green to a private collector, Fresno, CA; May 16, 2013, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 25, unsold; 2014, sold by a private collector to Fort Knox Antiquities, Scottsdale, AZ; 2014, sold by Knox Antiquities to Artemis Gallery, Erie, CO; 2014, sold by Artemis to Timothy Phillips, Boston; 2015, year-end gift of Timothy Phillips to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 26, 2016)

NOTE: According to a signed and notarized statement by Mr. Green supplied to Sotheby’s, New York (April 15, 2013), he acquired the figures in Nayarit in 1949 and brought them to California in 1950.

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

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

According to Mr. Green’s statement, the figures were acquired by him in Mexico in 1949 and brought to the U.S. the following year. This is consistent with information on his website, stating that he began collecting Pre-Columbian materials during his trips to Mexico in 1948 and 1949, and continued over the next twenty or so years. There are no inconsistencies in the two accounts, both of which suggest that he acquired this piece before 1970.

Provenance Information

Billy Pearson, Los Angeles; [Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles]; [Lacy Gallery, Los Angeles]; [Ancient Art of the New World, Inc., New York]; Joanne and Andrall Pearson collection, New York, 2002–2018

Exhibition Information

2004 Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Publication Information

Butterwick, Kristi. Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture From West Mexico: The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. New York, New Haven, London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004, no. 38, pp. 85–86.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work was offered and accepted as a promised gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004, when it was exhibited and published as part of the The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. This work is one of three offered together by the Pearson family in an unprecedented opportunity to obtain three striking West Mexican sculptures likely by the same artist or workshop, perhaps portraying members of the same family or lineage.

Provenance Information

[The Merrin Gallery, New York]; Joanne and Andrall Pearson collection, New York, 2003–2018

Exhibition Information

2004 Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Publication Information

Butterwick, Kristi, 2004 Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 39, illus. pp. 86 & 87.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work was offered and accepted as a promised gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004, when it was exhibited and published as part of the The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection. This work is one of three offered together by the Pearson family in an unprecedented opportunity to obtain three striking West Mexican sculptures likely by the same artist or workshop, perhaps portraying members of the same family or lineage.

Provenance Information

Probably by the 1950s or 1960s, and certainly by 1972 [see note], Vincent Price (b. 1911 – d. 1993) and Mary Grant Price (b. 1917 – d. 2002), Los Angeles; May 15, 2003, consigned by the estate of Vincent and Mary Price, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 233. May 15, 2015, anonymous (“private western collection”) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 55, to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 24, 2015)

NOTE: Actor Vincent Price and his wife Mary built up an extensive art collection in the 1950s and 1960s. They divorced in 1974, after which Mrs. Price kept this object until her death in 2002. According to information provided by her estate to Sotheby’s, their collection had been formed by 1972. Handwritten notes supplied by Sotheby’s further suggest that this figure had been acquired by the 1960s.

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

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

The Vincent Price collection was built up in the 1950s and 1960s, which is very probably when this object was acquired.

Provenance Information

Collection of Allan L. Long, New York, by 2000; Acquired by Ancient Art of the New World, New York, from Allan L. Long in 2000; Purchased from Ancient Art of the New World, New York, by Andrall E. and Joanne P. Pearson in September 2002; Collection of Andrall E. and Joanne P. Pearson, New York, 2002 to 2015; accepted as a promised gift from Mr. and Mrs. Pearson to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004; given by Mr. and Mrs. Pearson to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015.

Exhibition Information

This object was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum from October 19, 2004 through April 3, 2005 as part of the exhibition Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection.

Publication Information

Kristi Butterwick, Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2004: 76-78.

Sarro, Patricia Joan, and James Doyle. "Monumental Imaginings in Mesoamerican Architectural Models." In Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas, edited by Joanne Pillsbury. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, pp. 30–31, 38–39, figs. 27, 38, 39.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The work was accepted as a promised gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. The work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum from October 19, 2004 through April 3, 2005. This architecturally complex, ceramic structure features a feast for the dead with many intricate details. This model provides a rare opportunity to see architectural details that have not survived to the present day, such as plastered and painted thatched roofs. More importantly, the model depicts aspects of ritual and community life as ancient Nayarit artists conceived them. As such this work conveys a sense of place and activity in a way that few other objects do, an especially crucial feature for works of art from a region without contemporary texts.

Provenance Information

Robert and Marianne Huber, Huber Primitive Arts (Dixon, Ill.), by 1968 [correspondence in curatorial file]; sold to Lester (died 1992) and Rosalyn Olin (died 2013), Chicago, Ill., by 1968; by bequest to the Art Institute, 2014.

Exhibition Information

None

Publication Information

None

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

Lester and Rosalyn Olin purchased at least nine objects, including this piece, from Robert + Marianne Huber Fine Arts (Huber Primitive Art). The purchases were made over the course of several years ending in 1968, according to Marianne Huber, the gallery owner. Although Mrs. Huber was unable to locate contemporaneous records of the purchases, she stated in an email to the curator that she recalled selling the objects to Lester Olin before 1967, when she and her family left for an extended trip around the world, and in 1968, after their return in April of that year. The acquisition furthers the representation of the artistic achievements of all civilizations in art museums because it is a fine example of a “Chinesco” tomb figure from the mountainous Nayarit, West Mexico, testifying that the deceased has accomplished a coming of age ceremony, and attesting to her role in maintaining spiritual connections with the female earth.

Provenance Information

Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Alan J. Englander, New York; to their daughter, Diane Englander, at their death; her gift to the Gallery in 2013

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

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

Per donor's written statement indicating the works had been collected by her parents and that their collecting in this area had ceased by 1970.

Provenance Information

Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Alan J. Englander, New York; to their daughter, Diane Englander, at their death; her gift to the Gallery in 2013

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

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

Per donor's written statement indicating the works had been collected by her parents and that their collecting in this area had ceased by 1970.

Provenance Information

Joseph and Barbara Goldengerg, Los Angeles, by 2003.

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Prior to June 4, 2008, the donor signed a will setting forth her intent to donate the work to the museum. Although gifted to the museum, this work has not been accessioned, pending additional review and research.

Provenance Information

Jim Bodishbaugh, Santa Fe and Guadalajara, by 1971; sold to Joseph and Barbara Goldenberg, Los Angeles, by 1971.

Exhibition Information

UCLA Museum of Cultural History, "Companions of the Dead", October 11, 1983 to November 27, 1983.

Publication Information

Gallagher, Jacki, "Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico" (UCLA Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, 1983). Fig. 164, pg. 124, repr.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Prior to June 4, 2008, the donor signed a will setting forth her intent to donate the work to the museum.