Provenance Information

Heeramaneck auction sale, Public Plaza Galleries, New York, 1972; John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, 1972, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 2013, by gift.

Exhibition Information

2001-2003 Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong.

Publication Information

Pal, Pratapaditya. Desire and Devotion : Art From India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. Baltimore, Md. : Walters Art Museum ; London : Cat. 105.

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

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Walters Art Museum and John and Berthe Ford about this promised gift was signed September 1997. It was brought onsite to the Walters as a long-term loan in 2001.

Provenance Information

M. J. Nesco, Philadelphia; purchased by John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, March 30 1964; given to Walters Art Museum, 2011.

Exhibition Information

Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong (2001-2003).

Publication Information

Pal, Pratapaditya. Desire and Devotion : Art From India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. Baltimore, Md. : Walters Art Museum ; London : Philip Wilson. 2001; Pal, Pratapaditya. Indo-Asian Art-The John Gilmore Ford Collection. Baltimore, Maryland: The Walters Art Gallery. 1971.

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

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Walters Art Museum and John and Berthe Ford about this promised gift was signed September 1997. It was brought onsite to the Walters as a long-term loan in 2001.

Provenance Information

Tano estate, Luxor; Dr. Hans Goedicke, Baltimore, 1957, [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2008, by gift.

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

This object was brought onsite to the Walters as part of a long-term loan in 2007

Provenance Information

With Sotheby's New York, sale 6964, March 20, 1997, lot 116. Purchased for MCCM by Robert Wazler [Nathan Rubin - Ida Ladd Family Foundation], Georgetown, Connecticut, from Kapoor Galleries, New York, New York, March-April 2001.

Exhibition Information

MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - December 2013;
Golden Visions of Densatil: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, Asia Society Museum, New York, New York, February 19 - May 18, 2014;
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 27, 2014 - April 4, 2021;
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, August 28, 2021 - Present

Publication Information

Sotheby's New York, Indian and Southeast Asian Art (March 20, 1997), lot 116.;
Olaf Czaja, Medieval Rule in Tibet: The Rlangs Clan and the Political and Religious History of the Ruling House of Phag mo gru pa, Volume I (Wien: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2013), note 249.;
"Fragments of a Monastery, Reunited in Body and Spirit. 'Golden Visions of Densatil' Opens at Asia Society," The New York Times, February 20, 2014.;
Olaf Czaja and Adriana Proser, Golden Visions of Densatil: a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery (New York: Asia Society Museum, 2014), 100-01, catalogue 14.

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

Acquired by museum in 2001.

Provenance Information

Ex coll. D. Compagno, New York, New York, purchased from Piero Tozzi (1882-1974), New York, New York, early 1960s. With Joseph Coplin and Robin Beningson [Antiquarium, Ltd.], New York, New York, from 1993. Purchased by MCCM from Antiquarium, 2015.

Exhibition Information

Never exhibited

Publication Information

Anitquarium, Ltd., Ancient Treasures (New York: Antiquarium, Ltd., 2003), 6.

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

Object is reported to have been out of source country prior to 1970. The Carlos continues to conduct provenance research on this object and all our collections.

Provenance Information

Reportedly acquired from Paul Munro-Walker, Bornemouth, Dorset, Great Britain, by Virgilo Constantino Vecchi, Vecchi & Sons, London, in the 1960s; sold to Private Collector, Switzerland, 1972; purchased from Private Collector, Switzerland, through dealer Plektron Fine Arts A. G., Zurich, by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.

Exhibition Information

The cuirass was on long-term loan to, and on display at, The Museum of Art and History, Geneva, Switzerland, from 2001 to 2015. The helmet was on loan to the Glyptothek Museum, Munich, Germany, from 2005 to 2015.

Publication Information

Unpublished

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

This work has provenance to 1972 when it was acquired by a private collector in Switzerland who sold the work to the Metropolitan Museum. It has provenance reported to the late 1960s but the Metropolitan Museum has been unable to independently verify that information. The cuirass was on loan to the Museum of Art and History, Geneva, Switzerland, from 2001 to 2015. The helmet was on loan to the Glyptothek Museum, Munich, Germany from 2005 to 2015.
This is a one of the most distinctive and best preserved Etruscan panoplies surviving from the 5th century B.C. It would be the only complete or near-complete Etruscan armor in the Metropolitan Museum's collection. It is comprised of an exceptional helmet, a finely modeled muscle cuirass, and a single greave. The ensemble is remarkable for its topological singularities, ornamentation in silver, and overall state of preservation. Noteworthy features on the helmet include an applied silver gorgon and a bronze crest representing Pegasus. The breastplate and backplate stand out for the sensitive sculptural treatment of the anatomy.

Provenance Information

By 1978, Private Collection, Chicago. Sold at Sotheby’s London, November 14, 1988, lot 66; Offered at Sotheby’s on March 21, 2012, as Property of a European Collector; Purchased at Sotheby’s by Jeffrey B. Soref on March 21, 2012; Gift of Jeff Soref and Paul Lombardi to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015.

Exhibition Information

The work was exhibited in the 1978 exhibition The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and its Influence at the Asia Society, New York, at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1980 to 1985, and in 2014 at The Metropolitan Museum in Lost Kingdoms.

Publication Information

Thanphong Kridakon, Pramuan phap pratima [A Collection of Sculptures], 1965, no. 3; P. Pal, The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and its Influence, 1978, p. 122, no .76, and exhibited; Rhie, Marylin M. Interrelationships Between the Buddhist Art of China and the Art of India and Central Asia from 618–755 A.D. Supplemento n. 54 agli Annali, vol. 48 (1988) fasc. 1. Napoli: Instituto universitario orientale, 1988: 42, fig. 66; Sotheby’s London, November 14, 1988, lot 66; Sotheby’s NY, 21 March 2012, lot 242; J. Guy, Lost Kingdoms, MMA, 2014, p. 76, cat. 23, and exhibited.

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 work was first published in a Thai publication in 1965. The work has provenance established to 1978, when it was exhibited and published with an accompanying description and photograph in the catalog. The work was exhibited from 1980 to 1985 at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it was published in 2012 when it was offered for sale at auction by Sotheby’s. It was exhibited and published by the Metropolitan Museum in the 2014 exhibition Lost Kingdoms. This miniature icon of a Buddha expounding the dharma has the distinction of being among the earliest renderings of this subject known from Mon territories. The preaching Buddha seated with pendant legs became the signature icon of the monumental stupas built by the Mon state in 8th century central Thailand. The importance of this miniature icon of a Buddha lies in both its serving as an early prototype for such monumental Buddhas, and the likelihood that it is the earliest version of this subject known.

Provenance Information

[By 1980, David Newman, London]; ca. 1981, purchased by Evelyn Kranes Kossak from David Newman; 1983-2015, on loan to the Museum by Evelyn Kranes Kossak (L.1983.16); acquired by the Museum in 2015, gift of Evelyn Kranes Kossak, The Kronos Collections.

Exhibition Information

This work has been on long-term loan to, and on display at, The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1983.

Publication Information

Pittman, Holly. Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley. MMA (New York, 1984), p. 26, 27, fig.6.

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 has provenance to around 1980 when the Museum considered acquiring it from David Newman. In 1983, it was offered as a loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and it has been displayed continuously since then in the Museum’s Ancient Near East galleries. The work has been published once in 1984. This is a fine and rare example of a copper alloy plate with repoussé and incised decoration of a recumbent humped bull (zebu), demonstrating aspects of the so-called Intercultural Style, most visible on stone carvings from eastern Iran and western Central Asia. This vessel represents the only example in the Museum’s collection from this period using this technique.

Provenance Information

n.d. collection of Colonel William Mayer (b. 1892-1975), California, Washington D.C., and China; 1960 collection of Frank Caro/C.T. Loo, NYC (purchased from Colonel Mayer); 1960-1987 collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (purchased by Arthur M. Sackler for the Sackler Collections from Frank Caro/C.T. Loo, NYC); 1987-1997 estate of Arthur M. Sackler; 1997 collection of Else Sackler (d. 2000), New York, NY (purchased from estate of Arthur M. Sackler); 1997-2014 collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, NY (gift of Else Sackler); 2014 collection of Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (gift of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation)

Exhibition Information

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, "In Praise of Ancestors," September 27, 1987 - January 5, 1989

Publication Information

Bunker, E.C., et al. Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. (New York: The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, 1997); cat. no. 250a, pp. 281-2.

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

Part of a larger gift from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation that was, according to correspondence and documentation on file, acquired by Dr. Sackler from Frank Caro/C.T. Loo in 1960. Prior to that, it was in the collection of Colonel William Mayer.

Provenance Information

c. 1961/before c. 1975 – 2008 collection of Thomas Carroll (b. 1919), Chevy Chase, MD (acquired in Latin America while stationed with the Food and Agriculture Organization, UN (1958-1961) or while working on assignment with the Inter-American Development Bank (1961-1984)); 2008 collection of Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca (gift of Thomas Carroll)

Exhibition Information

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, A New World: Pre-Columbian Art from the Carroll Collection, March 29 – June 15, 2008

Publication Information

Scott, John F. and Laura Johnson-Kelly. A New World: Pre-Columbian Art from the Carroll Collection [an exh. cat.]. (Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 2008); ref. p. 79, color illus. p. 79, cat. no. 104.

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 donor pledged part of his collection, including this object, to the museum prior to 2008, as per correspondence between the donor and the museum dated 2005, on file. The object was acquired by the donor between the 1960s and early 1970s, while stationed in or on assignment to Latin America.